The Foodeeze Story
It all started in 2005 when Russ Adlem was a year 6 teacher in a primary school. He noticed that some children were much more restless and had shorter attention spans than others. This difference was more noticeable after lunch. So he started to check what they were eating for lunch and noticed that many of the restless children with lower attention spans were eating chocolate, snacks and sugary drinks.
With the support of their parents, Russ started taking them for school lunches and introducing them to meat, vegetables and fruit. It took time but the children started eating more and enjoyed the taste and texture of some of these new foods. It quickly became clear that their behaviour and attention span had improved in the afternoon and there was a steady improvement in overall SATs results.
This was great but it wasn’t ideal because the children weren’t making these healthy food choices for themselves; Russ was doing it for them. He really wanted the children to understand why healthy foods are better than unhealthy ones and to make their own decisions.
This gave Russ the idea of creating a fun and interactive game to encourage children to talk about food, experience new foods and make their own healthy eating choices. Foodeeze was born!
Foodeeze is an educational card game aimed at encouraging children to make healthy eating choices in a fun and exciting way to help tackle the ever growing issue of childhood obesity.
The Foodeeze characters and fun facts on the cards catalyse memorable interactions between the children allowing them to manage and remember information in a more effective way. The game challenges children’s problem-solving abilities, improves their food vocabulary and stimulates an interest in foods from around the world.
In 2013 Russ joined forces with Focus Games Ltd to refine Foodeeze and make it more widely available. Focus has a 10 year track record of developing ‘serious’ games in healthcare and education.
Foodeeze has been tested extensively in UK primary schools and also by parents and families at home.
Healthy food choices and regular exercise increase and improve energy, confidence, attention and behaviour leading to better performance at school and at home.
‘You Are What You Eat’
Russ Adlem (Creator of Foodeeze)