Charity launches "Feeding Young Imaginations" campaign to give children the best start in life
NEWS RELEASE
10 June 2004
Charity launches "Feeding Young Imaginations" campaign to give children the best start in life
The Pre-school Learning Alliance will launch the next phase of its national campaign, changing lives changing life, today (10 June 2004) at a major conference on early years and childcare at the QEII Centre in London.
Feeding Young Imaginations — seeks to ensure that all children get a healthy start in life. Working in partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF), the charity will help parents and pre-school settings with practical guidance on food and nutrition and to engage children in healthy lifestyles early in life.
Judith Thompson, Chair of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said:
"We recognise that a good start in life means a healthy start in life. Yet, in the recent debate on obesity, there has been little focus on the critical years before children reach school and it is in those early years that healthy eating habits are often established. Parents and pre-school settings must have access to sensible, appropriate information and practical support and guidance. Our new partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation will start to address this major issue for the first time".
Feeding Young Imaginations: The Pre-school Learning Alliance in partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation is launching a programme to provide practical support for parents and pre-school settings and to develop best practice in diet and nutrition in the early years. This will involve:
- New guidelines for food provision in pre-school settings, which will cater for the needs of children at different ages and with different cultural and dietary requirements
- Support for parents of young children in providing healthy food that their children will enjoy through recipe cards, a new Pre-school Cookbook and tips on healthy eating
- Hands-on training programmes for pre-school leaders, workers and volunteers
- An award scheme for pre-school settings to recognise high quality food and balanced healthy menus in early years' settings
- An informative and interactive website for children, parents and settings, offering information and guidance, recipes and questions and answers prepared by nutritional experts
The charity will also be launching a second strand of the campaign — Meeting the Workforce Challenge — focusing on the need for a more developed strategy to recruit, train and pay an expanded, integrated childcare workforce, to meet the considerable shortfall in the sector and to improve the continuity of care for all children.
Speakers at the conference will be:
- Tom Jeffery, Director-General, Children, Young People and Families Directorate, Department for Education and Skills
- Vidhya Alakeson, Social Market Foundation
- Stephanie Valentine, Director of Education, British Nutrition Foundation
- Norman Glass, Chief Executive, National Centre for Social Research and President of Pre-school Learning Alliance
- Judith Thompson, Chair of Trustees, Pre-school Learning Alliance
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Andrew Fletcher
Pre-school Learning Alliance
T: 020 7833 0991
Out of hours press calls: 07979 531 130
E: Andrew Fletcher
Notes for Editors:
- The Pre-school Learning Alliance Annual Conference is taking place at Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, Westminster on Thursday 10 June 2004. Registration begins at 9.30am, with the first speaker at 10.15am
- A campaign pack with further details is available on request. Please call 020 7833 0991 or email changinglives@pre-school.org.uk
- The Pre-school Learning Alliance has 15,000 member pre-schools who look after 500,000 young children and their families in England every year. Registered as an educational charity, the Alliance is the national dimension of the pre-school movement. Its member pre-schools are based in the community and most are managed and run by parents, alongside trained staff.
- The charity is involved in more Sure Start projects than any other organisation and aims to open around 30 Neighbourhood Nurseries by the end of the year.
- Pre-school Learning Alliance members receive a regular magazine (Under Five) reflecting issues affecting the early years sector. If you would like to receive a copy of this please call 020 7833 0991.
- Further information and all press releases are available on the Pre-school Learning Alliance's website: www.pre-school.org.uk or email pressoffice@pre-school.org.uk
- The British Nutrition Foundation is an independent scientific charity that promotes the nutritional well being of society through the impartial interpretation and dissemination of scientifically based nutritional knowledge and advice. It works in partnership with academic and research institutes, the food industry and government. Its activities are designed to influence all in the food chain, the professions, government and the media.
- Contact details: British Nutrition Foundation High Holborn House, 52-54 High Holborn, London WC1V 6RQ, Tel: 020 7404 6504 Fax: 020 7404 6747 Email: postbox@nutrition.org.uk