A heartbreaking observation begins the Food Foundation’s new three-part podcast series on children’s nutrition, Early Years (online).
In the lobby of a pre-school, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, recalls seeing “a little boy going through rucksacks and taking out food”.
“And he wasn’t taking out Kit Kats or sweets – he was taking out sandwiches and putting them into his pockets.”
This near-Dickensian scene isn’t a one-off. Some one in seven households with children struggle to afford food, the foundation’s research shows. A fifth of children are starting school with tooth decay, explains host Hannah Brinsden, head of policy at the foundation.
It’s a tragedy. Not just in itself, but because arriving at care hungry severely impacts learning and development.
“What we feed young children really matters,” says Charlotte Stirling-Reed, registered nutritionist. It establishes their lifelong health. “It’s too late to wait.”
After establishing the issue, the panel – completed by childcare provider manager Sarah Ambrose, and Dayna Brackley, partner at Bremner & Co – discuss how recent policy changes will and won’t help.
New guidance on early years nutrition, for example, “has been rolled out without any training or support”, Brackley says, and no measurement or monitoring. So “how will we ever know if it’s working?”
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Brinsden ends with optimism: “There are a lot of problems, but there are also glimmers of positive activity.”
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