The nursery group, which runs 39 social enterprise nurseries and pre-schools across the capital, says the move would offer 'lifelines' to vulnerable families experiencing food insecurity.
LEYF also criticised the Government's new food strategy white paper for containing ‘virtually no new measures’ to tackle the rising cost of food, child hunger and obesity.
Data released by The Food Foundation last month shows a 57 per cent increase in the proportion of households cutting back on food or missing meals altogether in just three months, including 2.6 million under-18s.
Five of LEYF’s nurseries are providing free food to families, either through running food banks, or in other ways.
The nursery group’s recommendations include the expansion of free school meals in state-maintained nurseries for all children receiving government funded places, and funded meals in private or voluntary settings.
The charity is also calling for the introduction of mandatory nutritional standards for the early years as well as the provision of high-quality training for chefs and caterers in a ‘radical shake-up’ to improve the quality of food in nurseries and children’s health.
Limited access to meals and their variable quality are key problems with the ‘broken early years food system’, said O’Sullivan, who highlighted that unlike schools, hospitals and prisons, there are no current nutritional standards for those responsible for feeding the youngest children.
O’Sullivan said, ‘With more than 1.5 million children attending an early years setting annually (and many eating all their meals there each day), Government investment in the provision of quality nursery food would be of huge benefit – both by improving children’s long-term health, and offering some certainty to families experiencing food poverty.’
- Read our analysis in our July issue, out next week, for more on how early years settings are supporting families with food insecurity
