Too many professionals who work with children have to go “above and beyond the call of duty” to ensure the youngsters in their charge have food, it has been claimed.
The claim comes from Linda Cregan, chief executive-designate of the UK-based Children’s Food Trust, ahead of the charity’s annual Children’s Food Conference on 19 March.
She called for local authorities, which are to take over the responsibility for public health from April 1 2013, to protect funding that will support children’s nutrition.
An on-line survey, which looked at how children’s diet has changed in the last two years, carried out by the charity found that many of the 250 or so respondents said they worked with children who did not have enough to eat.
Of the 158 professionals who worked in schools, 47% said they had noticed a deterioration in the standard of packed lunches that youngsters brought from home. Some had only cooked rice or cold chips and fish fingers to eat, while other children were given a packet of biscuits. There was also noticeably more junk food and cheap quality food, and less fruit and bread.
Out of all the respondents, which included also youth workers, childminders, family intervention workers, doctors, paediatricians, staff from further education colleges and hospitals, 64% said they thought hunger was affecting the health of children they work with and 77% said they believed it was impacting children’s ability to concentrate and learn.
Almost half – 42% – said they had given food to a child in the last two years because they were worried they weren’t getting enough to eat, while 24% had given money to a child so they could buy food.
Others said they had organised food hampers for families, food bank deliveries to school and taking parents to get emergency credit for electricity or gas cards so that they could cook at home.
Commenting on the survey, Linda Cregan said: “The message here is that too many people who work with children are having to go above and beyond the call of duty to try to protect children from the effects of hunger and poor diet.
“Of course it’s a parent’s responsibility to make sure their child eats well. But as this and other surveys have shown, the reality is that this can be an enormous struggle.
“Whether we like it or not, people working in these jobs are at the frontline of helping parents on this, so they need the right support.
“As local authorities develop their public health plans, ring fencing funding to support children’s nutrition would be a good starting point. This could be used in all sorts of ways – training on cooking skills for local organisations working with families, subsidising good school food, breakfast clubs in schools or grub clubs for the holidays – but making that explicit commitment is vital.”
About half of the professionals who took part in the survey said one of the biggest challenges for families was knowing how best to use a limited food budget.
They said that donations of free fruit and vegetables, free breakfasts for children at school, and cooking lessons for children and parents could all help.
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