Olo Care in the healthcare network

The Olo Care initiative offers personalized support. A care provider guides a family throughout a child’s first 1,000 days, from pregnancy to age 2. Thematic meetings are organized by the care provider, who also offers tools, tips, prenatal multivitamins and food coupons.

The goal of the Olo Care initiative is to break down the barriers to healthy eating and foster the health of babies as well as the development of healthy eating habits.

The document Framework of reference: Olo Care during the first 1,000 days (in French only) lays the foundations for an optimal follow-up during the key period of the first 1,000 days, from pregnancy to age 2. Find out more.

Individualized nutrition support is carried out by a trusted care provider (generally a nutritionist, nurse or social worker) and direct assistance is given to pregnant women through coupons and prenatal multivitamins. The coupons are redeemable for food (eggs, milk and frozen vegetables). Once the baby is born, we continue to provide follow-up care and coupons (tofu, bread, and purees and cereal for babies).

The Olo food coupons can be redeemed in most food markets in Quebec where these products are sold (grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies). 

To learn more about Olo foods and their benefits for pregnant women, babies and families, check out our Olo foods tool.

Educational tools and professional advice are offered to the whole family to help everyone acquire healthy eating habits and to inspire parents to focus on eating well, cooking and eating as a family. 

Because early childhood is when eating habits are learned, Olo Care offers parents tools to raise their capacity for action and help them shape their child’s eating behaviours. The tools include a recipe book, a weekly menu planner and baby books.

Once the baby is born, an Olo care provider continues to support the family. The goal is to strengthen and deepen knowledge about healthy eating and to further increase the family’s capacity for action. Postnatal food coupons are handed out during meetings to help families access and discover healthy foods.

Olo Care leads to the desired outcome: a healthy baby with an adequate birth weight, and new parents who can act as role models to help their child develop healthy eating habits early on.

Evolving support

• Since October 23, 2019, women who benefit from Olo Care can receive coupons redeemable for bags of frozen vegetables. Since the creation of Fondation Olo in 1991, the Olo food trio had remained essentially the same: eggs, milk and orange juice. However, evolving nutritional knowledge led us to question the presence of orange juice in the Olo foods we offer. Now, vegetables are offered instead. Find out more. 
  
  
• In April 2024, the unveiling of the first Olo foods offered during the postnatal portion of Olo Care marked a long-awaited milestone in the history of Fondation Olo and the Olo Care initiative. The Olo foods during the postnatal period will very likely evolve. Find out more (in French only).
  
  
• In September 2025, the Fondation Olo is pleased to have received, for the second consecutive year, the “Aliments du Québec on the Menu” recognition from the organization Aliments du Québec.

Once admitted to the program, mothers can expect to receive personalized support tailored to their family’s needs. The approach we use is one of guidance that’s respectful of the family’s motivations and of the pace at which the family shows interest in adopting certain behaviours.

• Mothers and families are supported by an Olo care provider. Most of the care providers are women, and most of them are nutritionists, nurses or social workers.
• The Olo intervention begins with a nutritional assessment to identify women who have particular risks aside from food insecurity (such as gestational diabetes).
• The meetings that follow include education about the link between the mother’s diet and the baby’s health, and about healthy eating habits. During these meetings, mothers are also given Olo food coupons and prenatal multivitamins.
• During pregnancy, Olo coupons are provided for a period of up to 28 weeks (this period will be shorter for women who deliver before full term (40 weeks)). Once the baby is born, postnatal Olo coupons are handed out (from birth to age 2).
• Depending on their needs, families receive tools developed by Fondation Olo to promote healthy eating.
• Support continues after the baby is born and until age 2, to deepen knowledge about healthy eating habits.
• With regard to meeting frequency, the framework recommends a minimum of 6 prenatal meetings and a minimum of 7 postnatal meetings.
• Olo coupons can be redeemed in most food markets in Quebec where the products are sold (grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies). 

Can you mail me the coupons?

No. Food coupons are only given during Olo Care meetings. The positive impact of the Olo intervention is based on both the foods made available and the needs-based nutritional support provided to mothers.

Olo: much more than coupons

Fondation Olo offers more than food coupons. Its goal is to give parents the capacity for action required to influence their child’s eating behaviours, using educational tools and professional advice. We believe in the importance of acting early in a child’s life, to offer them a better chance of success in the future.

Olo foods are distributed in the form of coupons. The Olo coupons are hand-delivered to families as part of the Olo Care meetings led by care providers.

During their Olo Care meetings, families receive a series of coupons corresponding to the following quantities of food: 

During pregnancy: 

• 1 egg each day
• 500 mL of milk (2 glasses of 250 mL) each day
• 1 bag of frozen vegetables each week

They get enough coupons to meet their needs until their next meeting.

From birth:

• 7 blocks of tofu from birth until the child turns 2
• 2 packs of puree when the baby is around 6 months
• 2 bags of iron-fortified baby cereal when the baby is around 7 months
• 7 bags of bread from birth until the child turns 2
• 7 bags of apples from birth until the child turns 2

These coupons are redeemable in grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies in Quebec where the products are sold.* Families must give their coupons to the cashiers in these stores to get the products for free.

* The process described above is the one used most frequently. However, from one region to another, there may be differences in the way Olo foods are distributed.

The life cycle of Olo coupons

There are 5 main points of contact involved in distributing and redeeming Olo coupons.

1. The Olo care provider orders coupons from Fondation Olo.
2. The Olo care provider gives the coupons to families during the personalized follow-up meetings.
3. The families go to the store (grocery store, convenience store, pharmacy, etc.). When it’s time to pay, they give the coupons to the cashier in exchange for the previously identified foods.
4. The merchant submits the coupons to Redemco (a company specialized in coupon redemption) for reimbursement.
5. Redemco bills Fondation Olo for all coupons redeemed.