Background:

Although face to face facilitation is one of the most commonly effective methods of delivering education to people in the community, Foodbank WA has introduced videoconferencing to deliver a quality, intensive nutrition and cooking program to overcome the vast distances involved in communicating with regional Western Australia (WA). Food Sensations® introduced this mode of delivery in March 2014. Foodbank WA has previously been involved in recording Food Sensations® sessions which were broadcast over the Westlink network to Community Resource Centres (CRC) throughout WA in 2013. The partnership with the CRC’s has been instrumental in the success of the initiative.

Methods:

Following a needs assessment of WA CRC’s in early 2012, Foodbank WA designed an intensive cooking and food literacy program that covered the community’s desired nutrition topics. A successful pilot program was implemented in October 2013 with one session per week delivered to three CRC’s over four weeks. Foodbank has since signed up 16 CRC’s for the intensive Food Sensations® sessions occurring from March - June 2014. We currently have a waiting list for future sessions.

Results/Discussions:

With a successful pilot under our belt, Foodbank WA embarked on what we consider to be ground breaking territory. No other organisation delivers an intensive nutrition program like Food Sensations® via videoconference to regional areas from its major capital city. The use of current government infrastructure (Community Resource Centres) has enabled Foodbank WA to capture a much wider audience than would be possible with face to face delivery.

 Conclusions/implications:

Delivering nutrition education from Perth to regional WA has many challenges. Videoconferencing is a cost effective and logistically viable option to deliver a comprehensive skills and knowledge based nutrition program to the state of WA. The enthusiastic reception to this delivery method of Food Sensations® provides a lead to other programs.