Join the Better Nursery Food Campaign
I stumbled last week into Panorama’s “What’s Really in Our Kids’ Food?” episode and was shocked to find out that while for many children, nurseries are providing the majority of daily food during the working week, no nutritional standards are in place for nurseries. Whilst many changes have been made to school dinners for primary and secondary school children over the last five years, food fed to younger and more vulnerable children has been left behind.
The Better Nursery Food Now campaign led by Organix and the Soil Association aims to change this. They have an online petition to call on the Government to put in place nutritional standards that will cover all nurseries, guaranteeing better food in nurseries now.
They have commissioned a study whose findings have been compiled in a report “Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie – Exposing the truth about nursery food” available online here.
The report highlights that over 600,000 children in England and Wales go to nursery for up to 10 hours a day. In many cases, nurseries are providing the majority of their daily food during the working week. Yet they are no clear nutritional standards, particularly for the 9 out of 10 nurseries that are not state-maintained. Some nurseries spend a pitiful 25p per child on the ingredients for a meal. Colourings and additives not permitted in manufactured foods for young children were regularly served in nurseries.
Join the campaign today by signing the petition and joining the Facebook group: www.facebook.com/betternurseryfood
