#90 SPRING 2017
Benefits go further than food Menzies research looking at school breakfast programs reveals their broader impact.
Thank you! You have made a difference by helping us raise over $44,000 towards multiple sclerosis research through the Winter Appeal.
Michelle Kilpatrick
Schools are an important setting for promoting healthy eating but evidence about the value of school breakfast programs has been mixed. Researchers looked at five Tasmanian primary schools, speaking to parents and carers, students, teachers and volunteers about what they believed to be the benefits of the programs. The lead researcher on the study, Dr Kylie Smith, said the common assumption was that breakfast programs were a good idea for nutritional reasons, but in fact it was social benefits that were consistently named as a major benefit of offering breakfast at school. “These social benefits included the chance for children to interact with children from different grades as well as the adults involved
Healthy habits: Lucas, George and Charlotte, from Moonah Primary School in Hobart, tuck into their school breakfast.
in running the program, engagement between the school and the community, and an opportunity for the school to provide early intervention and support for families,” Dr Smith said. She said the way the breakfast programs were run varied across the five schools, but all schools reported social benefits. Researchers conducted
Children are not necessarily missing breakfast at home for economic reasons written surveys and spoke to parents, staff, students and volunteers through one-on-one interviews and focus groups. They looked at five primary schools in Southern Tasmania across different geographic settings (some rural, some urban) and with different
demographic profiles. Dr Kim Jose, Ms Miriam Vandenberg, Professor Joan AbbottChapman and Professor Alison Venn also contributed to the report, which was funded by the Research Enhancement Grant Scheme at the University of Tasmania.
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
This will make a significant impact in securing a multiple sclerosis fellowship for our flagship program.
New funding accelerates progress in research
If you would like to make a donation to the multiple sclerosis appeal or to another area of research at Menzies, either go to the “donate” tab at menzies.utas.edu.au, fill out and return the donation slip in this Bulletin or call 1800 638 124 or 6226 7700.
An innovative multiple sclerosis research fellowship designed to fast-track scientific knowledge into clinical practice has been awarded to two Menzies researchers. The Director of Menzies, Professor Alison Venn, said the inaugural MS Research Australia – Macquarie Group Foundation Paired Fellowship program totalling $750,000 for three years, was
visionary in the way it brought laboratory and clinical researchers together to speed up the translation of research into practice. “We are very proud that two of our senior scientists have been chosen through a competitive process to achieve this, the only nationally funded paired fellowship in multiple sclerosis (MS) research,” Professor Venn said. “We have 20 years of research into multiple sclerosis at Menzies and this disease is a key area of focus for us. This funding will allow us CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Menzies Bulletin Spring 2017 1