This page tells you about the School Food Trust Eat Better, Start Better project which helps young children to eat well. We do this by working with families and all those involved in early years health and education.
Did you know?
Children start learning about food at a very early age. The messages they receive during this time lay the foundations for the choices they make about food as they move up to school and beyond. With more than one in five children overweight or obese as they start their school reception year, it’s never been more important to help them get a healthy start in life.
We’re leading the work nationally to help early years providers meet children’s nutritional needs more consistently, and to help families with young children to develop the cooking skills and confidence they need to cook and eat more healthily.
The work is commissioned by the Department for Education with support from its Voluntary and Community Sector Grant.
The Eat Better, Start Better project involves:
New publications – the guidelines, menus and recipes
- The Voluntary Food and Drink Guidelines for Early Years Settings in England
- Practical support tools including checklists and an early years code of practice for food and drink
- Spring/summer menus and recipes for early years settings
- Autumn/winter menus and recipes for early years settings
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NEW: These resources are now available to download from: www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/eatbetterstartbetter/resources or click here to order hard copies |
New training courses
- A comprehensive training package. Two courses are being piloted in five local authority areas between November 2011 and March 2012, before being rolled out across 30 more local authorities in 2012 -13.
- Course 1 is for early years and health professionals in local authorities and primary care trusts to help them support settings in using the voluntary food and drink guidelines.
- Course 2 is for early years practitioners to help them understand the guidelines and train them in how to run healthy cooking sessions with families.
Keep watching this page for updates on the work and on the local authorities taking part in our pilot.
The local authorities selected to take part in the first phase of the Eat Better, Start Better pilot are:
- Hertfordshire (East of England region)
- Southwark (London region)
- Stoke on Trent (West Midlands region)
- Gloucestershire (South West region)
- Gateshead (North East region)
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Background information about Eat Better, Start Better
- In 2010, the School Food Trust was asked by Government to establish an independent panel of experts to look at the existing guidance available for childcare providers on food and drink for young children, to see if they needed to be improved or revised. This panel – which included national organisations representing children’s centres, nurseries and individual childminders – looked at evidence and feedback from parents and providers of childcare. The panel found clear demand for a recognised, national source of practical guidance which all providers could choose to follow. You can read the details here.
Laying the Table. Recommendations for National Food and Nutrition Guidance for Early Years Settings in England. Volume 1: Main report
Click here to download (Adobe pdf doc 1,348KB) - In her review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, Dame Clare Tickell backed the panel’s recommendations, advising Government to “consider providing further advice and good practice for practitioners”
- We’ve been working in this area for some time. We delivered a unique pilot – commissioned and funded by the Department of Health ‘s Change4Life scheme – to help families with very young children learn to cook healthy meals from scratch. Our national network of healthy family cooking clubs, Let’s Get Cooking, trained staff at 60 Sure Start Children’s Centres across the country in running practical cooking sessions. Read the evaluation ‘Cooking with Families’ below.
