皇冠体育app

Young Food Ambassadors have met with Children鈥檚 Minister Vicky Ford to discuss their role in promoting healthy eating and activities, following confirmation in the Spending Review of the Government鈥檚 extended support for disadvantaged children.

皇冠体育app Minister and a group of seven of the Young Food Ambassadors for the Children鈥檚 Right2Food Campaign were joined by their Ambassador Dame Emma Thompson and Food Foundation Executive Director Anna Taylor for a Zoom meeting on Thursday 26 November where they spoke about their shared ambition to tackle childhood obesity and improve access to nutritious meals for all children, especially those most disadvantaged.

It follows the Government鈥檚 announcement of a 拢170m support package for the most vulnerable over winter and the expansion of the 拢220m Holiday Activities and Food programme to cover Easter, summer and Christmas in 2021. This was confirmed again by the Chancellor on Wednesday as part of the Spending Review settlement.

Children鈥檚 Minister Vicky Ford said:

I鈥檓 so grateful for the energy and dedication shown by the Young Food Ambassadors, who have shared their experiences with me of school food and healthy eating.

We all agree on the importance of a healthy, nutritious meal and the impact it can have on children鈥檚 development. Through our expanded Holiday Activities and Food programme, thousands more young people will benefit from this during the Easter, summer and Christmas breaks next year.

Executive Director of the Food Foundation Anna Taylor said:

Today we saw a high level of engagement from Minster Ford on the issues of child food insecurity and inequalities in obesity. Since our last meeting with the Minister in July, the Government has made significant commitments to tackling child food insecurity during the holidays, which we applaud.

It was clear today that the Minister understands the importance of engaging with young people living with food insecurity when considering these solutions. 皇冠体育app Young Food Ambassadors look forward to collaborating further with the Minister on decisive action to ensure no child misses out on a healthy diet.

Minister Ford, who recently wrote to schools to encourage them to make every effort to provide hot meals that meet the School Food Standards, praised the work of school caterers for getting kitchens back up and running since September.

At least 99% of schools have been open each week since the start of term in November, and schools, colleges and early years settings across the country have worked extremely hard to remain open.

皇冠体育app Minister spoke to the Young Ambassadors about their experiences of healthy eating at school and encouraged them to work with the Governments from across the four nations to promote this.

She also invited Dame Emma to visit a Holiday Activities and Food project next summer after the expanded programme has been rolled out across England.

Asha, 14 from Cumbria, one of the seven Young Food Ambassadors to meet with Minister Ford, said:

In our meeting today we thanked the Minister for what she鈥檚 done so far to address holiday hunger. We鈥檙e pleased she listened and took action on our feedback from our previous meeting in the summer and we look forward to that happening again this time. We鈥檙e excited that now we鈥檒l now have regular meetings with her team so we can work together to deliver our Charter recommendations and make sure all children can access a healthy diet every day.

Another Ambassador, Ryan, 18 from Glasgow, said:

It鈥檚 so important for Ministers to not only listen to children and young people鈥檚 views and experiences of food poverty, but make sure they are taking their views into account as early as possible during the policy-making process. Today, we had our second meeting this year with the Minister Ford 鈥� we鈥檙e glad she values our input and we hope to keep engaging with Government in a more formalised way so that us young people can be part of lasting policy solutions.

皇冠体育app Ambassadors, who met with the Minister earlier in the summer to discuss their 鈥楻ight2Food鈥� charter and new podcast series, spoke positively about the expansion of the holiday activities programme and the increase in the value of Healthy Start vouchers from 拢3.10 to 拢4.25 a week from April 2021.

皇冠体育appse were both announced by the Government on 8 November, alongside a new 拢170 million Covid Winter Grant Scheme to be run by local authorities in England, at least 80% of which is earmarked to support with food, bills and other essential costs to cover the period to the end of March 2021.

皇冠体育app Department for Education this week wrote to local authorities with further details of the 拢220 million Holiday Activities and Food programme and will appoint a national organisation to support with local delivery of these projects from next spring.