A new resource launched today (Monday, January 9) by the Food Foundation aims to offer a comprehensive library of historical changes in government legislation and attitudes towards childhood nutrition.
The library will offer insights to journalists, campaigners and researchers into the attitudes and laws in relation to childhood nutrition dating back to the 19th century.
The resource has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation and is a catalogue of all the key initiatives aimed at improving children’s nutrition since 1879.
It brings together numerous acts of parliament, policy documents, research studies and other materials to catalogue more than 180 key policy developments, and will be freely available to anyone who wants to access it.
Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation, said: “This new library shows the evolution of children’s food policies and casts new light on today’s policy decisions.
“For example, it shows that free school meals were first introduced when we realised that poor nutrition in childhood meant that our soldiers didn’t have the physical strength to fight in the Boer war.
“It shows that in 1949 and in 1986 free school meals were cut back so that many of today’s older adults who benefited from free school meals as children would no longer be eligible now.  
“Poor nutrition in childhood has once again become a national priority – with unhealthy weight and poor diets affecting more than one-in-three 11 year olds.
“It’s time to rethink whether we have the right policies in place and urgently extend free school meals to prevent the long-term impact of the cost-of-living crisis on children’s health.”
Childhood nutrition
The library aims to provide a record of how Britain’s current generation of older adults benefitted from an “unprecedented wartime and post-war drive to improve childhood nutrition regardless of social class and income”, the Food Foundation said.
Initiatives triggered by World War II included a more expansive provision of free school meals and free school milk, and the late-1940s saw free school meals and milk made available to all school children.
The library also documents more recent initiatives including the reintroduction of school cookery classes in 2014, the advent of the Holiday Activities and Food Programme to support low-income children in accessing nutritious food during the school holidays, and the introduction of the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme which provides free fruit and vegetable snacks.
A spokesperson for the Nuffield Foundation said:Â “This new resource provides an extremely valuable window on the past and the progressive decisions that contributed to better health for previous generations.
“We are pleased to have funded it as part of the Food Foundation’s work to extend the evidence base for the important contribution government policy can make to children’s health and well-being.”
