About Us
Nutrition Australia Qld’s (NAQ’s) Mission:
“To encourage health and well being of Queenslanders by encouraging them to make informed food choices that will promote a healthy lifestyle and well being, and help protect against chronic disease."
NAQ aims to achieve its mission:
• acting as a source of scientific information on key nutrition issues
• producing and disseminating material on nutrition to policy makers, the media, educators, food industry and consumers
• acting as consultants to government departments, other non-government agencies, food industry and consumer groups on issues related to food and nutrition
• encouraging innovation in the dissemination of nutritional knowledge.
• the initiation and promotion of healthy eating campaigns;
Our History: The Australian Nutrition Foundation (Qld Div) Inc, trading as Nutrition Australia Qld (NAQ), is a non profit, non government community nutrition education organisation that has TDGR and charity status. NAQ was established in 1994 and has a 30 year history as a key community nutrition education body and is highly regarded as the independent voice of nutrition education in the community.
We deliver services across Queensland with individual members, organisations, corporate partners and other government and non-government key stakeholders to promote evidence based healthy living messages. Our health promotion services and strategies including a range of nutrition education and cooking skill programs and other resources for various community groups across the lifespan to promote healthy life choices in relation to healthy food selection and physical activity.
NAQ’s current work includes:
• Nutrition advisory services aimed at specific target groups (early childhood, outside school hours care, schools, sporting canteens, aged care and workplaces in the Queensland population – these have now been operating for about 16 years
• Operation as a Registered Training organization with scope to deliver food safety supervisor training to both the health and community services, and retail and hospitality sectors
• Other nutrition education and cooking skill programs for vulnerable groups eg young mums, refugee families, people with mental health problems and their carers
• Development of resources (including our website) to support the work of the above programs
• Availability of expert advice by email and telephone to respond to nutrition queries from both the target groups and the general public
• A distribution service for clinical nutrition supplements to hospitals, aged care facilities and the general public, especially those transitioning from hospital to home. Many of the people using this service need to do so because of issues arising from chronic disease, especially cancer, type 2 diabetes and stroke.
Many of the above services are carried out in collaboration with a range of partners including government ( eg Queensland Health, Department of Communities, Department of Immigration & Citizenship, Education Queensland, Disability Services), other non profit, non government agencies (eg Playgroup Qld Inc., Professional Support Coordinator for Childcare in Queensland (PSCQ)), academic institutions and industry.
NAQ is a member of :
• the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA)
• the Early Years Strategic Network
• the Eat Well Queensland Implementation Working Group
• the Queensland Health Statewide reference group for Early Childhood Nutrition
• the Coalition Against Food Advertising to Children(CFAC)
• other government steering and reference groups relating to nutrition in schools, OSHC, sporting canteens and the aged care sector.
We aim to bring you this information through our website by providing:
• resources and fact sheets about food (including recipes and food ideas) and nutrition;
• information on the nutrition services we provide for specific target groups including the early childhood education and care sector, schools and school canteens, sporting canteens, workplaces, aged care and culturally and linguistically diverse groups;
• recent news surrounding nutrition and food;
• news about upcoming healthy lifestyle events within Queensland