In Germany, Mars set up ‘Clever Naschen’, a communication platform to provide consumers with knowledge and tools to help them make wise decisions and responsible choices about the food and drinks they consume and the levels of physical activity in which they engage.
The ‘Clever Naschen’ website offers families all over Germany information on nutrition and a healthy and active lifestyle. Moreover, specific multi-stakeholder activities are supported to promote physical activity and obesity prevention in lower socio-economic and migration groups. For instance, in North Rhine-Westphalia – in co-operation with the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Centre – the initiative provides education to families with a migration background about the benefits of an active and healthy lifestyle and helps them incorporate more physical activity and balanced nutrition into the everyday family life (lale-nrw.de).
An external evaluation by the research institute (futureorg.de) showed that impact of the ‘Lale’ programme was significant, improving the nutrition and health knowledge and the physical activity levels of participating children and their parents.
Mars Germany is also a founding member of ‘ekip – Werkstatt Gesundheitsförderung‘, a health promotion initiative aiming to improve health promotion concepts among the migrant population.
Practitioners from prevention projects, representatives from migrant organizations, social associations, science, etc. share information from their respective expertise and benefit from each other’s experiences. All learnings form the basis of an online toolbox in order to improve efficiency and sustainability of new programmes.