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Programmes

Children's health and food

Strands of work Framing toolkit

We want to break the link between low income and poor nutrition, by improving the quality of food options in lower-income neighbourhoods

This programme was previously called the childhood obesity programme. Find out why we updated our programme name.

Why we focus on children’s health and food

All children should have the opportunity to be healthy, no matter where they live. This includes access to a nutritious diet.

Yet children’s chances of accessing healthy food – or being flooded with unhealthy food – depend strongly on where they grow up.

We believe that by coordinating efforts from different organisations and individuals, we can have an impact on unequal access to nutritious food.

Overview of our programme

We believe that all children should have the opportunity to thrive, no matter where they grow up. A key factor in ensuring this is access to nutritious, affordable food wherever they live, shop or go to school. Our ten-year programme is working to change the food environments in places where children and families spend their time, so that eating well is the easiest – not hardest – thing to do.

We are focusing on the areas in Lambeth and Southwark that are flooded with unhealthy food. By learning what works to change food environments in Lambeth and Southwark, we hope to influence others to take up successful approaches in other urban neighbourhoods.

 

 

Families living on lower incomes are disproportionately affected by a lack of access to healthy, affordable food. We set out to understand more about these areas and the communities living there. By coordinating efforts from different organisations and individuals, we aim to impact on unequal access to nutritious food here in Lambeth and Southwark, in other UK cities, and beyond.

Partnering with others

Become a partner

We partner with other organisations in order to deliver projects, conduct research and amplify our results. Our work with partners focuses on shifting incentives in the food environments where families spend time purchasing and consuming food. We champion children’s health by advocating for more nutritious food to be put in the spotlight, whilst also stemming the tide of unhealthy food options faced by children.

As food environments are influenced by businesses, government and our own communities, creating change requires working with a wide range of partners. In practice, this means we layer up different activities and work with a range of organisations to test and run projects that can tackle the issue from many angles.

As a result of the clear link between an area’s average income and the availability of nutritious, affordable food, we focus our efforts in the areas with lower average incomes, where families are disproportionately affected, and rates of food-related ill health are higher.

[We share] a valuable partnership with Impact on Urban Health... Together we are able to expand our reach and impact, and deliver targeted interventions that will help stem the flood of unhealthy food on our high streets, screens and school canteens and improve the flow of healthy options for every child.

Nicki Whiteman Director of Communications, Bite Back 2030