In the light of the ‘End Child Food Poverty’ campaign, more than 50 public health directors, sector experts and healthcare professionals today sent a letter to Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock calling on the Government to allocate additional funding to the Healthy Start scheme which supports low-income families. The letter urges the government to increase the value of the voucher to £4.25 a week. The letter came right after Tesco announced that they are going to offer free fruit and vegetables to 500,00 families this Winter who are eligible for the Healthy Start scheme. This letter takes one of the three key recommendations from the National Food Strategy and footballer Marcus Rashford’s #EndChildFoodPoverty campaign, into account, alongside expansion of Free School Meals and holiday food provision. More than 1 million people have signed it to date. The Healthy Start scheme provides pregnant women and low-income families in England, Wales and Northern Ireland with children under 4 with free vitamins and food vouchers to purchase vegetables, fruit, pulses and milk. The letter is sent just days after Tesco announced a pledge to top up Healthy Start vouchers by £1 over winter, following Iceland’s announcement in September to add £1 of frozen veg to each voucher redeemed in store. The letter urges the government to act as well as businesses.
