The Government Obesity Strategy only goes so far

Child nutrition charity Magic Breakfast welcomed the Government’s new Obesity Strategy, but with reservations. It is concerned that the money pledged remains at Local Authority level, not reaching schools who are well placed to provide healthy food and nutrition education to both parents and children at risk of obesity.

The poorest families have less income and less time, and are more likely to rely on processed food, within low cost diets. Magic Breakfast works closely with these communities, and is concerned that Government has so far failed to develop local relationships, or invest enough in school nutrition, to make a difference longer term.

Childhood obesity is only one side of the child nutrition story. The shocking truth is that there are also children arriving at school too hungry to learn. We estimate that there are a quarter of a million primary school children in this situation; stuck in a vicious circle of not having the right fuel for learning at the start of the school day, which means they are cannot concentrate on their lessons and so they are unable to make the most of their learning and thus one of the key ways to escape the poverty trap is closed off to them.

“We hear too many stories of children coming to school having had little or nothing to eat since the food they had at school the previous day. In one of our partner primary schools, two children were hospitalized due to malnutrition in the term before we started supporting them with free, healthy breakfast food.”

Magic Breakfast is based in London and helps children in London based schools, but the obesity issue and that of child malnutrition is a UK-wide issue and affects us here in Scotland too.

The charity is relieved to see that the Government has a genuine concern about the state of the nation’s nutritional health, and a real ambition to develop strategies to turn the obesity crisis around, but at local level, it fears that most children still choose a diet which is high in salt, fat and sugar, in the absence of better nutritional guidance and healthy food options. And they may pay for this with shorter life expectancy, and an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

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