Food education is widely recognised as part of how young people learn to live well. Yet in practice, access is uneven. It depends on where you are, what your school prioritises, and what happens after age 16. Hungry for Change, the latest national report from Best Food Forward at The School of Artisan Food, puts some weight […]
The County Councils Network has published a new Dialogues report on free school meals, developed in partnership with Basis and Bremner & Co. We are pleased to have supported this work alongside colleagues across the sector. It reflects a growing focus among councils on how to ensure that children who are entitled to free school meals are actually receiving them, and
New County Council Network report on free school meals is published Read More »
This month, I was pleased to author an article on our free early years meals (FEYM) research for Nursery World’s EYE Early Years Educator (EYE) supplement. Writing it several months on from when the research was originally published provided an opportunity to reflect on how much has moved on even in that short time, and how the findings continue to shape our conversations across
Still Too Young To Count? Reflecting six months on Read More »
Ask almost any parent whether cooking is an important life skill and they will say yes. Ask their child and you will get the same answer. New national polling from The School of Artisan Food’s Best Food Forward programme suggests that 97% of parents and 91% of young people consider cooking healthy meals and making good
New research: ‘Hungry for Change’ – what parents and pupils want from food education Read More »
We are pleased to co-author the latest paper from the FixOurFood research consortium. This paper evaluates the implementation of free school meal auto-enrolment, highlighting the potential benefits, conditions for success and support needed to scale this approach. The free school meal registration problem – project context An estimated 220,000 entitled children miss out on free school meals because they are not registered, with schools missing out on vital, associated Pupil Premium funding. One of the main reasons families
Press release A new report – ‘Too young to count’ – reveals that, despite rising hunger and poverty, most children in childcare are excluded from free meal support. Read exclusive coverage in The Independent here. Nearly 300,000 young children in poverty will miss out on free meals in nurseries and childcare settings, according to a
New report: 290,000 disadvantaged young children will miss out on free meals Read More »
Best Food Forward‘s Food Education Mapping Project (FEMP) has been published. This report offers a comprehensive picture of how food education is taught and experienced in English secondary schools. Capturing the voices of teachers, school leaders and students, it demonstrates both the value of food education and the challenges that risk undermining it. Key findings
Today we’re publishing Follow the Carrot, the final report for our research that asked a simple question: could expanding free school meals also strengthen the UK food and farming economy? Our analysis suggests the answer is yes, if expansion is matched with the right conditions for success. Commissioned by Sustain and with support from the
Follow the Carrot: can free school meal expansion boost the UK food and farming economy? Read More »
A new report from the Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group (Hungry for Change) sets out a stark picture. Children growing up in the North of England face higher risks of food insecurity, poorer nutrition, and obesity from birth through adolescence. These patterns reflect structural inequalities that continue to deepen across regions and generations. The
The Food Foundation’s latest report is the final in its three-part series on nutrition during a child’s early years. Boosting Early Years Nutrition to Support a Healthy Childhood focuses on children aged 1 to 5, exploring the food environments they grow up in-from commercial baby snacks and toddler milks, to the meals served in childcare
New report: Boosting early years nutrition to support a healthy childhood Read More »
