Food access improvements

• Dining facilities improvements: upgrades to seating and serving areas to enable more children to enjoy time to eat and socialise
• Cooking facilities improvements: upgrades to school kitchens to enable better meal provision, or even bringing catering in-house if currently offsite
• After-school and holiday club investment: funding for improving cooking facilities, equipment & healthy eating education provision for after-school or holiday clubs
• Healthy tuck shop: stationary or mobile facility to enable sharing fruit and vegetable snacks with children either at break time or after school
• Drinking fountain provision: installation of new drinking fountains, or upgrades improve health and safety, such as foot-operated or refill-friendly models, as well as supporting ‘water only schools’ models.
• ‘Bridging the Gap’ food vouchers: Supporting people on lower incomes to access fresh, local, organic fruit and vegetables.
• Organic fruit, veg and pulses in school meals: Bridging the Gap is trialling ways in which to introduce more locally produced organic fruit, veg and pulses into school meals. These pilots are demonstrating that with some commitment to menu reformulation, support for adapting entrenched supply chain mechanisms and direct engagement with farmers we can significantly increase access for children across the UK.

 

Food education and skills improvement

• Cookery education investment: capital investment in facilities and equipment, or toward ingredients to enable delivery of cookery education programmes
• Food growing investment: investment in growing spaces such as raised beds, polytunnels, allotments, and orchards as well as equipment and growing materials
• Food teacher recruitment and training: Staff training and asset development to support food or growing education, as well as training to support a better dining experience
• Mobile food education bus: converted bus to enable food education activities, as well as wider community food engagement, which could be a shared asset benefitting multiple schools

• Dedicated food teaching facilities: standalone facility development to benefit multiple schools with cookery education and training for both children and teachers
• Food education beyond the school gate: investment toward costs and materials associated with food-related activities such as farm visits or other off-site food education activities

 

Broader programmes

• Extend the Household Support Fund, ensuring a longer-term funding solution is established in partnership with local councils.

Read more about how these ideas were developed in our report ‘Refreshing Investment in Children’s Health’

 

 

Policy interventions tool

Past levy spend

What the levy could raise