The pupils at The Hill loved the fact that the activity was modelled on a well-known card game, which made it easy for young children to transfer their knowledge and understanding without having to worry about the logistics/rules of the game. The choice of vocabulary displayed on the cards, the interesting facts and additional nutritional information will certainly encourage the children to try new foods, raise their awareness of food groups and the meaning of a balanced diet. The fact this activity also stimulates conversation and co-operation is obviously another plus point. Thank you for delivering the session to the pupils in such a lively, engaging manner.

Yours sincerely,
Mrs Cox

I can safely say that some of these were enjoyment free! They have made little impact on Zac, and being a family who love good food, we were worried that these diets were narrowing his interest and awareness in food. Russ is a great friend of mine and naturally gave me a pack of Foodeeze as a present. Although Zac struggles to sit and concentrate during activities, he’s captivated by the colour and characters on the cards and, due to having a great memory, refers to food as the character which has helped him to understand food better and show more of an interest. We still struggle to persuade him to eat most vegetables – unless they are covered in gravy! - but he’s gradually started enjoying carrots and fruit which is a massive step from where he was a year ago and in turn we’ve noticed a slight difference in his level of interactive behaviour. Barney Banana is his current favourite!

Obviously his condition is very complex and he certainly still has tantrums and loses his way, but Foodeeze has definitely had some effect on his eating habits. It also gives us some lovely family time – we go through the cards at meal times with him, and amidst all the crumbs and spilt milk, there is some really fun learning taking place.

His 2 year old sister, Georgia, is also following in his footsteps and has started referring to food by character – her favourite is Simon Strawberry at the moment, and of course , Roger Roast Beef on a Sunday ! Through Foodeeze, she has taken a real interest in the kitchen, and I now have my own little sous–chef when I’m preparing meals.

We can’t really play the second game as described with Pip since her reading skills are a little basic for it – she is just below the recommended age level of five for this game. However, the three of us can play by either myself or Husband reading out the food facts & the other two players competing over who can guess what the food is.

I’ve also come up with another way of using the cards. I show Pip two cards but cover up their health values. She then has to guess which food has the higher health value.

I think that these cards are a great, fun teaching resource and I’m sure I’m going to find other ways of using them. They’re clearly already making a difference as when we had ice cream the other day, she asked for just a little bit of chocolate flavour because it’s not very good for her. I was really impressed with this. She seems to really have caught onto the idea that unhealthy foods don’t need to be cut out altogether, just eaten in smaller amounts.

However, I was amazed that we went out and Emmy brought her pack of Foodeeze and chose to play this with her friends instead of a computer game - they were all chatting and laughing together. Emmy's definitely become more interested in food and often asks what's in different meals and tells us what's healthy and unhealthy but I think they should be used in schools more as well to keep the kids interested in food.

I had a look at the resources which give variations on the game but new characters and other games would be great. Overall we've really enjoyed playing and having fun with the game but we're ready for a new one.

He's always had pretty good knowledge as we go up to the allotment a lot and talk about what grows on trees and what grows in the ground but the cards have made our trips more exciting and less of a chore for a 3 year old. Like any 3 year old he gets bored easily so by saying 'let's go and play Foodeeze at the allotment' he's raring to go and enjoys playing guessing games and telling me what food's what and where it comes from - 'I've found Cary Carrot!' is constantly ringing in my ears.

Really impressed and thanks for making the allotment trips less of a chore for him. Hopefully they'll have the same affect on my daughter, Maggie, when she's older.

We ended up playing both games a few times, laughing at the characters, chatting about the fun fact and thinking of other foods that Foodeeze doesn't have characters for. We even started using them at dinner times and seeing who had the healthiest dinner. Foodeeze has really encouraged George (and my older daughter Katie) to talk about food more and ask more questions about it, like 'how do pineapples grow?' and 'where do star fruit come from?' I've also heard from George that the cards are also being used by his teacher in class so they obviously have a lot of benefits in and out of school.

For a theory PE lesson, all of the children were engaged and thoroughly enjoyed playing Foodeeze and learning about food and the body. They ended the lesson by randomly picking cards and asking each other ‘which parts of the body would an orange, for example, affect’. They gave some good answers and showed that they’d learnt a lot."

"The great thing about the Foodeeze game is that the children don't realise they're learning something and consequently, made better food choices, both at school and outside."

To deliver exciting, interactive lessons about food and nutrition means that additional staff must be employed and extra equipment bought. Many schools are struggling to raise the funds to meet these new obligations and are restricted in how the implement the requirements.

Foodeeze is an educational card game that delivers the knowledge children need to make healthier decisions about the food they eat. The cards are relatively inexpensive and can deliver a wide range of learning opportunities that help schools meet these new requirements without significant extra investment.

The game was created by former primary school teacher Russ Adlem to help the children in his school improve their performance through eating a more balanced meal at lunchtime. Russ has since worked with a group of NHS specialists to refine the game and it is now dyslexia-friendly and has been validated by a qualified medical dietician and a specialist speech and language therapist.

Foodeeze was developed by Russ Adlem from Caversham, in association with NHS specialists, a dyslexia expert and a speech and language therapist when he noticed that the more restless children in his class tended to eat chocolate and sugary drinks.

The characters and fun facts encourage children to learn about healthy food in an exciting and socially interactive way. The game challenges children's problem-solving abilities and improves their food vocabulary and interest in different foods from around the world.

The game comprises a pack of cards featuring different foods such as Barney Banana, Carlos Cornflakes and Chantal Cheese, and includes nutritional values and fun facts.

Russ said: "After noticing that some children weren't making these healthy food choices for themselves, I realised that they needed to understand why healthy foods are better than unhealthy ones and to make their own decisions.

"It occurred to me that this could be done with the help of 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!"

In 2013 Russ joined forces with Focus Games Ltd to refine Foodeeze and make it more widely available. Together, they've developed two different versions of Foodeeze suited to key stages 1 and 2 (KS1 and KS2). Priced at just £4.99, it's being snapped up by parents to play at home with their children too.

In 2013, Russ approached Dale Campbell, a European Trademark Attorney from Trademark Tribe who trademarked the brand to ensure that the name was his to use. Now the company has officially launched, his first goal is to get the card game used by schools and councils.

He added: "Dale was fantastic and helped me understand where Foodeeze stood in the market and how it could easily fall into someone else's hands if it wasn't protected correctly. She also explained the difference between the 'R' and 'TM' symbols and it seemed like a 'no brainer' registering Foodeeze. Dale's fees were extremely reasonable so I opted for a mark on the logo and a mark on the word itself.

"Dale and TradeMark Tribe have been highly efficient, helpful, reasonable and have given great advice in helping to protect the Foodeeze identity and brand."

Dale said: "As Russ was launching a new brand we wanted to make sure that the name and logo was free to use and so we undertook clearance searches for him to make sure that no one else had already registered the name as a trademark.

"Once the searches confirmed that the name was available we applied for trademark protection. This ensures that Foodeeze will maintain ownership of their brand which is vital to protect a brand that consumers grow to know and trust.

"Sometimes a business launches and grows and may not even know until too late that they are unwittingly infringing a previously registered trademark. Untold damage can be done if someone else passes off as your brand and pulls your customers away especially when they do not offer the same quality service. Based on our advice, Russ chose to register both the word Foodeeze and the logo so that both his name and visual identity are protected. "

It is an absolute gift for teachers as children can learn how healthy different foods are, along with ideas of how to use them in recipes.

The game is a pack of cards featuring different foods such as Barney Banana, Carlos Cornflakes and Chantal Cheese. Each food has a health value from 1 to 10 (Chantal Cheese is 4, Barney Banana is 8). It is described in 4 ways – ‘I am creamy, I can be smelly, I am soft or hard, I make bones stronger’. It also has some fun facts, such as ‘I come from a cow’ and ‘I’m yummy on jacket potatoes’.

There are two ways of playing: either as top trumps where the owner of the card with the highest health value collects all the cards in that round, or as a guessing game, whereby people have to guess the food from the description. There are lots of other ideas for games on the website, including the holy grail of lesson plans. The game was developed by a primary school teacher who noticed that what children ate for lunch made a difference to how they behaved in the afternoon.

Although this game is primarily aimed at classroom use for Key Stage 1 (5-7 year olds), with another one on the way for Key Stage 2 on the way, we had fun playing it at home and soon developed our own game, which was to add up the health value of everything on our plates, with whoever had eaten the most healthy items winning. However, I felt this was putting some pressure on me as the chef so we haven’t played it that often. But it’s in my armoury as an additional tool to encourage my children to eat their dinner.

The great advantage of the game is to educate children about their food, and, in this era of the sugar demon, to inform them about how healthy their meals are. It’s a fantastic resource for primary school teachers. Which child wouldn’t enjoy a chance to play games during class?