Teesside campaigners join calls to prevent food insecurity in children
A letter's been sent to the Government
Last updated 1st May 2025
Campaigners in Teesside are calling for pregnant people and children in poverty to receive the nutrition they need to grow up healthy.
The Food Foundation has sent a letter to the Government saying the current scheme to prevent food insecurity and malnutrition is not fit for purpose.
It has been signed by Emilie De Brujin, who is the Chair of Hartlepool Baby Bank, and she said: "It's vitally important that changes are made to the system. It's a good system. It's making improvements and helping some families but it could do with an overhaul and it could do with the ability to help ALL families. If they can do it it Scotland, why can't we do it here in England? And we at the Baby Bank believe that we need to speak out for the families using our service who may be can't speak out.
"It's vitally important that babies, toddlers and children grow up healthily. We know that illness costs the NHS, it costs in prescriptions, costs doctor visits. Being poorly has a detrimental effect and if we can get these children off to a strong start, we're giving them the best towards being healthy adults and therefore, reducing the cost and the strain of services like the NHS.
"Malnutrition shouldn't happen in a developed country in 2025. Malnutrition means that children can't concentrate at school bcause they're hungry. It means they're ill so they miss more time. It's detrimental to their education and it's detrimental to our country's future. These children are our future engineers, doctors, teachers, our future everything.
"One thing that we're seeing is a massive rise on those asking for help with baby food or formula. Our supply simply can't cope with demand. It's very tough out there for families although we may be able to help with the pushchair, which frees up a little bit of income towards food, we're still seeing just so, so many families struggling for the pure basics.
"What I want from the Government is real investment but also real communication with families, make benefits keep up with inflation, remove the two-child limit and take all of these poor, innocent children out of poverty and make childcare affordable but really what they need to do, is to come and visit baby banks, meet with families and see why they're using them and really address the problem at the heart of it."
The letter
A letter, coordinated by The Food Foundation and signed by over 80 signatories representing NGOs, local government, medical bodies and anti-poverty campaigners, representatives from Barnardo’s, the Institute of Health Visiting, Royal College of Midwives, Sustain and The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, has been sent to Government calling on them to ensure pregnant people and those with babies and toddlers who are living in poverty receive the basic support they need for children to grow up healthily.
The letter asks for the Government’s Child Poverty Taskforce to include measures to ensure children are receiving the nutrition they need at this critical stage of development.
Currently, households with children are persistently at higher risk of food insecurity than households without. In June 2024, The Food Foundation found that food insecurity was experienced by 18.0% of households with children, compared to 11.7% of households without children. This shows how important it is that the government’s Healthy Start scheme, which is supposed to provide a critical nutritional safety net for pregnant people and families with children under 4 who are living in poverty, reaches these families.
The Food Foundation says the Healthy Start scheme has huge potential to help families at risk of food insecurity to access the basic nutrition they need through weekly payments for fruit, veg, milk, formula and multivitamin supplements. However, it is currently failing to reach those in need due to:-
• Restrictive eligibility criteria and only being available to those with a household income of £408 per month or less, excluding benefits.
• Low value of £4.25 a week. The payment hasn’t increased since 2021 and so has failed to keep up with inflation. For comparison, the Best Start Foods scheme, which is the Healthy Start equivalent in Scotland, has a value of £5.30 a week.
• Low uptake, with about a third of eligible families currently not signed up to the scheme due to lack of awareness and administrative hurdles.
• Families currently only being eligible until their child turns 4, meaning there is a gap before children start school and have access to Free School Meals
The Food Foundation added high levels of food insecurity among households with children are particularly concerning given how important good nutrition is in pregnancy and for young children’s growth and development. Food insecurity in pregnancy has been linked to antenatal depression, gestational diabetes, and excessive or insufficient weight gain in mothers. For babies, good nutrition is essential for healthy growth, strong immunity and preventing diet related illnesses later in life.
Signatories of the letter are calling on the government to:
• Expand eligibility to include all families on Universal Credit, and extend the age-eligibility to include children under five years old
• Increase the value of the Healthy Start allowance in line with inflation
• Introduce auto-enrolment, with an “opt-out” rather than the current “opt-in” system to remove barriers faced by families in applying
Barbara, a mother of two daughters aged one and four, and a Food Ambassador for The Food Foundation from Hartlepool, said: "Healthy Start aims to help and support pregnant women, mums, babies and toddlers have necessary supplements and nutrition. Yes, this is beautiful, but I think many people are not aware of this beautiful opportunity.
"I must confess that it's only been a month since I knew that they help provide supplements and vitamins for babies and new mums... It was only when I saw the GP because I was feeling sick and dizzy, that I found out I had an iron deficiency and lacked some vitamins.
"I really wish that Healthy Start and nutrition education was shared with new mums when leaving hospital, so that they know if they can receive the Healthy Start benefits. More awareness and auto-enrolment of Healthy Start, would help many parents on low incomes from facing unnecessary challenges with food and health.”
Shona Goudie, Policy and Advocacy Manager, The Food Foundation, said, “By the time children start school, one in five are already an unhealthy weight, with rates twice as high among the most deprived communities compared to the most privileged. Not only that, but a third of five-year-olds have tooth decay.
"These shocking figures highlight a glaring truth: more needs to be done to ensure our children are getting a nutritious start in life. Government should be doing everything it can to prevent our children getting sick in the first place. The Healthy Start scheme has enormous potential to help the most deprived children access healthy food from their earliest years but is currently falling short.
"We urgently call on Government to recognise the incredibly beneficial impact this scheme could have if it was improved. This would help children access much-needed healthy food at one of the most critical times in their lives for growth and development.”
Lynn Perry, Chief Executive, Barnardo’s said, “The Healthy Start scheme helps parents struggling with the cost of nutritious food - but £4.25 a week just isn’t enough to cover the essentials for families with young children. Many families also don’t know about the scheme or how to access it.
“This really matters because being unable to access healthy food can have serious long-term impacts on a child’s life, both physically and mentally.
“At Barnardo's, we support calls to review and improve Healthy Start to make sure it is fit for purpose. Increasing the amount offered, as well as making it easier for parents to access the scheme, will help make sure families and children can afford to buy healthy food.”
A government spokesperson said:
“No child should live in poverty - that’s why our Ministerial Taskforce is exploring all levers available across government to give children the best start in life.
"We will tackle family food insecurity by rolling out free breakfast clubs in every primary school and continuing to provide free healthy food for children who receive free school meals during the holidays.
“As part of our Plan for Change, we will build family security through increasing the National Living Wage, capping how much Universal Credit can be taken for debt repayments.”
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