Nearly all of the lunchboxes it looked at last year contained fruit (99%), compared to 85% in 2018.
And half of them contained vegetables, compared to about a third during the previous survey.
HIC has partnered with States Early Years for the last five years, providing support for nurseries and pre-schools to implement its Eat Well policy.
Its latest report highlights the success of this venture.
‘Lunchboxes are 200% better than they were when we first started this venture, which is amazing,’ said Butterflies pre-school owner Elaine Allen.
This year’s HIC annual report also looked back on its projects over the year, many of which involved young people.
One of these was the Growing Gang project, which saw children growing their own vegetables and learning about where food comes from.
This involved 900 children from 20 settings – an increase over the previous year’s 15 – and saw the Friquet Garden Centre donating 28 bags of compost and 130 packets of seeds to the project.
The report said that Hautes Capelles Primary School’s efforts particularly stood out for its efforts to improve nutrition, having worked with the commission since 2022.
It set up a pupil group called Food – Focus On Our Diets – which, among its achievements, created a new snack policy to ensure that all morning snacks were either fruit or vegetables.
For adults, the commission has worked with Public Health to develop a programme to support weight management services. But the service was paused in February 2024 due to staff shortages.
‘While this was a difficult decision, the commission is strongly supportive of Health & Social Care’s efforts to focus on developing appropriate weight management services which meet our community’s needs,’ HIC said.
This year it hopes to expand its Counterweight Plus programme, which supports people over the course of a year who need to achieve a 15% weight loss for medical reasons.
The goal is to incorporate a group delivery which will allow more people to access the programme.
HIC chairman Mike Bane said the report reflected the ongoing achievements and impact of its work.
‘We are very appreciative of the support we receive from the States, the private sector, and charitable organisations – partnerships that are essential to driving sustainable health improvement across our islands,’ he said.
CEO Dr Simon Shrive also thanked the HIC team and the people who collaborated with the commission during the year.
‘It is encouraging to see growing recognition, both publicly and politically, of the vital role that prevention plays in improving health and economic outcomes,’ he said.
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.