A report published by the Food Foundation shows that the Covid-19 crisis has made existing problems with children’s food insecurity worse, and that these issues are likely to get more serious with a recession and rising unemployment on the horizon.
Dame Emma Thompson is an Ambassador for the Campaign and is supporting the young people as they demand the ear of Government and a formal response to their campaign for a Children’s Right2Food Commission to be set up to speed up action across government, monitor and protect children’s food in the UK.
Children’s Right2Food Campaign Ambassador, Dame Emma ThompsonThompson, Children’s Right2Food Campaign Ambassador, said: “The ‘compassionate society’ that we pride ourselves on has become an uncomfortably glaring misnomer. If it’s justice, humanity and moral duty that we care about here, then why are millions of children going hungry every day?
“We already had unacceptable levels of food poverty in the UK and the current Covid-19 crisis is leaving many more of our children at risk of food insecurity. It’s a scar on our nation’s conscience and we need our Government to act now.”
The Young Food Ambassadors are releasing a Right2Food podcast series, with the first and second episodes out yesterday.
The ‘A Year of Children’s Food’ report, which identifies multiple Covid-19 delays to urgently required policy change, demonstrates that increasing financial and social instability for many families will mean that further delays to policy developments could be all the more devastating for children living in poverty in the UK.
The Children’s Right2Food Charter, which was delivered to 10 Downing Street in April 2019 but which has yet to receive a formal response from the Department for Education, has been updated in light of the problems exacerbated by the Covid-19 lockdown, and provides an evidence-based road map for the government to ensure that every children has access to a healthy diet.
The key proposal put forward by the Young Food Ambassadors in their Children’s Right2Food Charter is a Children’s Right to Food Commission to monitor and improve children’s food. The Commission would be established in law, operate across all four UK nations and have young people at the heart of its leadership. Its first task would be to develop a plan to deliver the changes set out in the rest of the Charter.
The Charter also calls for:
- Plans for protecting children’s food security during future pandemics and emergencies
- Holiday provision to be expanded permanently, not just during the coronavirus pandemic, to support all children who normally receive free school meals when schools are closed
- Expanding access to free school meals so more children can benefit
- The free school meal allowance for secondary school children to be raised from £2.70 to £4.00 so it’s enough to buy a nutritious meal
- All schools to have the facilities for children to easily drink tap water
- Banning of advertising of unhealthy food aimed at children near schools, on TV, online and on social media
- Healthy food to be more affordable for everyone, and for fast food shops and fast food chains to ensure healthier options are cheaper than unhealthy ones
- Children entitled to free childcare to receive free nursery meals too
- Free school meals to be renamed the ‘school meal allowance’ to destigmatise the entitlement and remove the negative associations felt by many children.
It seems almost unreal that in 2020 campaigns to ensure children are fed adequately even need to be deployed. We wish the Food Foundation every success with their goals.
About the Children’s #Right2Food Campaign
The Children’s Right2Food Campaign is a nationwide initiative to ensure every child in the UK can access and afford good food, and was shaped by the findings of the Children’s Future Food Inquiry.
Led by Young Food Ambassadors from across the UK and coordinated by the Food Foundation, the campaign calls for government action to tackle children’s food insecurity and inequalities in childhood obesity, and puts forward its vision in the Children’s #Right2Food Charter.
The Children’s Future Food Inquiry was launched in 2018 as the first attempt to speak directly and systematically to children, young people and those who live and work with them about children’s experience of food and how it affects their lives.
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Government child food poverty – 14 July 2020 – Government child food poverty