The DO MORE FOUNDATION Gamifies nutrition education – and everybody wins

When the DO MORE FOUNDATION broke a world record by making 107 418 peanut butter sandwiches in an hour on World Food Day in October 2019, it was just the beginning of a plan to ensure that young children across South Africa get the right nutrition, every day. March being Nutrition Month, the DO MORE FOUNDATION has initiated an innovative follow-up campaign which teaches children and their caregivers how to make healthier nutritional choices, without spending more.

Currently 27% of South African children under the age of five are stunted due to inadequate nutrition. Stunting can have serious long-term consequences, including poor cognitive development and long term health issues. While lack of access to healthy food is an obvious contributing factor, so is a lack of knowledge about what healthy eating looks like. Even in impoverished settings, it is common for children to be sent to school with nutrient-poor snacks rather than something as simple and affordable as a peanut butter sandwich. 

The DO MORE FOUNDATION is working to change this by creating a fun, nutrition-focused board game to take back to the children who received sandwiches during its World Food Day campaign. Playing the game introduces the children and their caregivers to the campaign’s key nutritional messages, and technology takes these a step further. By scanning a QR code or contacting the Whatsapp number on the game, the caregiver gets to have a short nutritional conversation with a “chatbot” – and be rewarded with a R2 discount voucher on their next Yum Yum Peanut Butter purchase, plus a chance to win a year’s supply of the same.

“This fun, innovative campaign will enable us to make a more sustainable impact in the nutrition space. It also gives children and caregivers an opportunity to play a fun game together, which is important for social and cognitive development,” says Iris Naidoo, DO MORE FOUNDATION Programme Specialist.

This is the first time the DO MORE FOUNDATION has embarked on a consumer-focused nutrition education campaign. As always, they are working with a number of partners to make it possible. Barrows has printed and laminated the A3-size educational games using leftover white board; The Reach Trust has integrated the new nutritional messages into its digital “Finding Thabo” chatbot platform which is supported by Pick n Pay; and RCL FOODS is providing the discount for the Yum Yum peanut butter, in partnership with Pick n Pay and Pick n Pay Smart Shopper. The Foundation has also collaborated with UNICEF to ensure high quality messaging around nutrition for young children. The game will be distributed at the end of February 2020, in five regions where the sandwiches were donated for World Food Day.

“We are excited at the opportunity to drive this critical message and do that little more to influence behaviour change. Thank you to all our partners for supporting us in delivering this ambitious campaign, which ends in April 2020 with the announcement of the competition winners,” says DO MORE FOUNDATION Executive Warren Farrer.  

Follow the link to test out how the chatbot technology works: http://m.me/FindingThabo?ref=yumyum