Food for Life (FFL) has announced a new early years project in Nottinghamshire.

Funded by Nottinghamshire County Council Public Health, Food for Life will work with seven nurseries to contribute to the Nottinghamshire Childhood Obesity Trailblazer project.

Food for Life is a Soil Association project that supports schools and early years settings to promote healthy food and reconnect pupils and children with where their food comes from.

The Childhood Obesity Trailblazer is a national programme jointly funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England, managed by the Local Government Association. The three-year programme is part of the government’s ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030.

Nottinghamshire County Council is one of five trailblazer authorities involved. The project works to positively influence, enable and support change within the home and community food environment for families with young children. This includes improving meal uptake, food education and family outreach provided by early years settings.

Food for Life will also work with nurseries to review menus and improve the nutritional quality of meals, supporting cooks to serve fresh, local meals to the children in their care.

The project will run for a total of 22 months. Food for Life is one of many partners contributing to this project, including Family Action and Loughborough University.

The initial Childhood Obesity Trailblazer work will be focused on areas of Nottinghamshire with the highest levels of childhood obesity, including Bassetlaw, Mansfield and Ashfield districts. The partnership brings together the skills and expertise from Public Health, early years and school catering, children’s centre services, childcare and early years providers, and importantly, local parents.

As part of the project, FFL is providing seven nurseries with the Food for Life Early Years Award. This award supports nurseries and children’s centres with a framework to provide the best possible start to children’s food journey.

Food for Life Early Years awarded settings provide tasty, nutritious meals in an environment that creates great social skills. They also work hard to encourage good food habits for life, through practical cooking and growing activities and food-based learning – both for children and their parents and carers.

The nurseries involved are:

Learning Tree Nursery 2
Creative Hands Childcare
Serendipitys Day Nursery Newark
Kidzgrove Daycare

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