Early Years Alliance and LEYF launch nutrition survey

The Early Years Alliance and London-based nursery group the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) have launched a joint survey about food provision and nutrition in early years settings. 

Please find the full news release below.

 

The Early Years Alliance and London-based nursery group the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) have today (Tuesday 4 October) launched a new joint survey about food provision and nutrition in early years settings. 

The survey aims to gain provider perspectives on food provision across the early years sector and the challenges associated with giving children access to healthy, balanced and nutritious meals. 

Responses will be used to support our efforts to influence government policy with the aim of improving early years food provision and funding. All individual survey responses will be kept anonymous. 

Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said: 鈥淎ll children, regardless of their background or circumstances, should have access to healthy, balanced and nutritious meals to provide them with the necessary energy to learn, help them to maintain healthy lifestyles and to develop positive relationships with food from the earliest opportunity. 

鈥淎s we head into the autumn and winter months, many family budgets will be stretched even further and, for some children, the meals they receive at their early years setting could be the only nutritious meals they receive during the week. 新澳门六合彩官网开奖 are well aware of their responsibilities in this important area, but they need access to realistic financial support and guidance to be able to deliver this.  

鈥淲ith the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, now is an opportune and vital time to explore how 鈥 or if 鈥 settings are managing to deliver healthy food in their settings, and to identify any challenges to doing so and how they can be addressed. As such, we hope that as many educators as possible will respond to this survey and make their voices heard.鈥 

June O鈥橲ullivan, CEO of the London Early Years Foundation, said:  "By serving all children healthy and nutritious meals, early years settings can play a crucial role in ensuring they get the essential balanced nourishment required for growth and development. However, the sector is not sufficiently supported to provide such high-quality, accessible and affordable meals to the 1.5 million children who attend early years settings each year. This is why our new survey will hopefully deliver fresh evidence on food provision across the sector and highlight its key challenges so that we can lobby for positive change in government policy and improve in children's health." 

The survey can be completed using this link  and will close on Tuesday 25 October.