Improving Children's Diets
We work to ensure all children have access to a healthy and nutritious diet.
About this Pillar
Why we want this
We know how important diet is to set children on a path of good health essential for their development and wellbeing. However, far too many children don’t get the diets they need, and lower-income households are disproportionately impacted.
Evidence shows young people in the UK are eating too much saturated fat, sugars and salt and too little fibre, fruit and veg. Conditions such as diabetes and obesity are increasingly affecting children – diseases normally associated with adult life.
Nourishing the Nation: A shared vision of a brighter future
Healthier foods are often not affordable for families on low incomes, and households with children are at higher risk of food insecurity than the general population. We are seeking to ensure every child across the UK can access and afford a healthy diet, and that the policy landscape and food system support all children to eat well.
We do this by working with young people directly as well as civil society, academia, policy makers and businesses to drive improvements in children’s food policy and practice across the UK, informed by evidence and lived experience.
What we are asking
At a national level, we want to see the adoption of a range of policy and business recommendations to ensure that pregnant women, infants, school children and young people have access to a healthy diet, with a focus on supporting the most deprived to eat well, and get the best start in life.
We want to amplify the voices of those experiencing food insecurity, ensuring that the perspectives of children and young people who are faced with food inequalities in their daily lives are reflected in policy thinking and decision-making.
How we are helping
We support policy-making by generating robust data and evidence on children’s food security. We use this research in evidence-led advocacy for improvements to local and national policy that support children across the UK to eat well.
We support young Food Ambassadors from across the UK to campaign for Government action to reduce children’s food insecurity and inequalities in childhood obesity. Our youth-led Children’s Right2Food campaign and youth events give young activists tools and a platform for engaging with policy-makers. We create impactful communications that profile real-life experiences of young people and share the issues that matter to them the most.
We collaborate with a wide range of civil society and business to make a case for change. This builds on our previous success leading the End Child Food Poverty coalition, which advocated for improvements to children’s food programmes We are members of the School Food Review Group and co-ordinate its Feed the Future campaign, which advocates for the expansion of Free School Meals. We are also part of the Healthy Start Working Group, a coalition campaigning to strengthen the Healthy Start scheme which supports pregnant people, infants and young children.
We are conducting an in-depth study on early years food and nutrition to identify what policy action is needed to support a healthy weight in childhood and give children the best start in life.
Initiatives
Research & Evidence
Latest Content
Explore the Key Pillars of our work
Our mission is changing food policy and business practice to ensure everyone, across our nations, can afford and access a healthy diet.
Improving children’s diets
Too many children live in households experiencing food poverty in the UK. These families often rely on a cheap, poor-quality food which means that child hunger and obesity often coexist. We work to ensure all children can access a healthy diet.
Increasing vegetable consumption
Despite decades of the 5-a-day campaign, consumption of veg remains well below recommended amounts, with children and low income groups eating the least. We work with over 100 businesses and cities to change the environment so that veg is more available, affordable and accessible.
Influencing food policy
To address the health and climate crises, policy needs to support major dietary shifts – 30% more fruit and vegetables, 50% more fibre, 25% less HFSS food and 30% less meat by 2032. We support leaders to transform food systems.
Inspiring change in food businesses and investment
5 out of 11 supermarkets now have targets for healthier food sales. 2 have targets for fruit or vegetable sales and 2 report on sales of animal vs plant proteins. We help make the food industry more transparent so that investors and policy makers can spot the leaders and the laggards.
