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13 December 2023
Food for Life provided as a solution to ultra-processed foods in a letter to Prime Minister
In a letter to the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, TV chefs and campaigners have urged the government to take action to deliver five-a-day to a million children using Food for Life’s whole school approach to good food with sensory education and better school meals accessible for all.
In the Soil Association-led campaign, presenters, chefs, and authors including Yotam Ottolenghi, Dr Chris van Tulleken, Thomasina Miers, Bee Wilson, Kimberley Wilson and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall along with other key food organisations, have highlighted that ultra-processed foods are robbing children’s experience of learning to eat.
“Children are being robbed”
In an open letter the group said: “Learning to eat should be an adventure – joyful and challenging – but our children are increasingly being robbed of the experience. Many are growing up not knowing the tastes, textures, and smells of real food. Many will rarely feel fresh produce between their fingers. Many will enter adulthood only knowing the simplified and sweet flavours of ultra-processed products, leading to unhealthy choices and poorer health outcomes later in life.”
Alongside the letter, the Soil Association has published a report exploring how schools can be part of the solution, drawing on learnings from 20 years of its Food for Life initiative, which supports schools to adopt a whole school approach to food education and healthy school meals.
The charity has called on the government to revive previous commitments to roll out this approach across all schools, ensuring children are cooking and growing, visiting farms, and eating freshly prepared meals. This move is backed by Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy and those who signed the open letter to the Prime Minister.