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Better Nursery Food Now

Anna Guyer | 23.02.10

With more and more mums working, 600,000 children are enrolled at nursery in the UK. There are also shocking stats, recently launched, that one in four children in the UK are obese by the time they go to school. So we are calling on government to put in place clear nutritional standards guaranteeing better food in our nurseries now.

The campaign has gathered momentum. The campaign's Facebook page has grown to nearly 600 fans and 1,500 people are following the Nursery Food Twitter page. More than 5,000 people have signed a petition online to demand better nursery food for our children.

It may surprise you to know that research conducted by the Soil Association, and funded by Organix, found this shocking state of affairs in nurseries:

• NO clear nutritional standards
• NO compulsory training for nursery staff serving food
• NO agency to monitor the quality of food provided
• NO government department giving a lead or promoting good practice.

In fact, foods banned or restricted in primary and secondary schools, like crisps, sweets and chocolate, are regularly served in nurseries.

We have run a survey on Mumsnet to get the views of this election’s most influential voters: mums. If the government needs to be made to listen, surely 1000 opinionated women can help make that happen. On March 31st, we are taking to government our petition, complaints, case studies gathered via Facebook and a new report on nursery food.

Surely the long-term health of the next generation should not be left to chance.

For resources, more about the campaign and to sign our petition, please visit www.nurseryfood.org.

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