The role of childcare providers, schools and community groups in reducing the impact of food poverty on children will be the focus of the Children’s Food Trust’s second Children’s Food Conference later this spring.
School food reviewer Henry Dimbleby, Observer food writer Jay Rayner and Carmel McConnell of the charity Magic Breakfast - recently named as one of Downing Street’s charity partners of 2013 - will be among those on stage at the event on 19th March in central London.
The day will include a focus on the role of breakfasts, with a look at Blackpool’s new pilot scheme to offer a free meal to start the school day to every child at primary school and discussion of how other breakfast initiatives are making a difference. Experiences in the US are also on the agenda with Janey Thornton, Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at the US Department of Agriculture, speaking about the role of family food policy in tackling food poverty in the States.
Children’s Food Trust Chairman, Rob Rees, said: “Organisations which look after children in all sorts of different ways – at school, at nursery, in local activity groups or in the community - are supporting children who are struggling because they aren’t getting enough of the foods they need, or enough to eat at all. Too many of our young people are underfed and undernourished. It isn’t acceptable in modern Britain and puts us in a place of crisis. The organisations attending our conference are in a unique position to help, and this day is all about the best ways to do that.”