Settings-Based Approach

Australia’s vegetable consumption crisis demands a whole-of-system settings-based response.

The Plus One Serve program takes a settings-based approach, focusing effort on where vegetables are grown, bought, prepared, and consumed. By targeting the most influential environments – home, retail, and education – we can shift individual behaviors while driving generational and systemic change.

Home and Retail are critical

Over 80% of vegetables move through retail channels, and 90% of vegetables are prepared and eaten at home. This is where we must act first to achieve immediate behaviour change.

Education shapes the future

Early learning, primary, and secondary/tertiary settings are where lifelong habits are formed. These environments are crucial for embedding vegetables into the daily lives of children and young people.

System change requires all settings

Coordinated action across home, retail, and education reinforces consistent messages, builds skills and confidence, and shifts social norms over time.

Together, setting-based interventions create the conditions for sustained, generational change in vegetable consumption – ensuring benefits for public health, grower prosperity, and national food security.