Tom Kerridge joins calls for Government to do more to tackle food insecurity

Celebrated chef Tom Kerridge is among the voices urging the Government to step up in addressing food insecurity as it gears up to release its child poverty strategy.

The campaigners highlight shortcomings in a programme aimed at helping families with young children purchase nutritious food, advocating for changes to widen its scope and include more families in need, as stated in a letter. Under the healthy start scheme in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, eligibility extends to individuals over 10 weeks pregnant or those with children under four on certain benefits, allowing them to buy healthful options like milk, fruit, and access free vitamins.

With active collaboration from the devolved governments, the Government’s child poverty taskforce is expected to roll out its strategy this spring. The plea, signed by a collection of charity and medical organisation representatives, was directed at Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall.

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They argue that the healthy start scheme has been severely overlooked in recent years and calls for "urgent improvements" to "give children the best possible start in life" are made in the letter. In a concerted effort to combat malnutrition and give children the best start, The Food Foundation has coordinated a letter pressing for the Government to make several urgent changes to the Healthy Start scheme. Advocates are calling for an expansion of eligibility to all families on Universal Credit and increasing age-eligibility to children under five.

They also seek to boost the voucher value in line with inflation and suggest switching to an "opt-out" system for enrolment as opposed to the current "opt-in" method, which can deter families from applying. They highlight: "Through weekly payments for food and multivitamin supplements, the scheme has huge potential to help families at risk of food insecurity."

Citing severe neglect of the programme in recent years, they argue: "Urgent improvements are therefore needed to prevent malnutrition and give children the best possible start in life."

Food Foundation's research from the previous year showed almost a fifth (18.0%) of UK households with children experienced food insecurity, significantly higher than the 11.7% of households without children.

Mr Kerridge, adding his voice to the cause, commented: "It is unacceptable that in a country like the UK we still have such a high number of households with children suffering from food insecurity. We know how important it is for children to eat properly so they can grow up and thrive. ".

While the Government's healthy start scheme has the potential to help tackle child food insecurity, it currently not reaching those who most need it, improvements have to be urgently implemented into the upcoming Child Poverty Strategy, and then a Government spokesman said: "No child should live in poverty – that’s why our ministerial taskforce is exploring all levers available across government to give children the best start in life.

"We will tackle family food insecurity by rolling out free breakfast clubs in every primary school and continuing to provide free healthy food for children who receive free school meals during the holidays. As part of our Plan for Change, we will build family security through increasing the National Living Wage, capping how much Universal Credit can be taken for debt repayments."