05/11/03 - Launch of new Food & Health Pack for Cumbrian schools

At 10.30am on Monday 10thNovember at Rheged Discovery Centre in Penrith, County Councillor Joan Stocker, Cabinet Spokesperson for Education launches the new food & health pack ‘Food and Health – a Whole School Approach’ to encourage schools to promote balanced eating for young people in Cumbria.

The pack has been developed by Cumbria Healthy Schools in partnership with Health and a number of other agencies.  It includes lots of guidance and examples for schools to use in developing their food service and policies.  These include: healthy tuck shops; school meals and packed lunches; breakfast clubs and the provision of water and milk.  Schools are encouraged to work with parents and the whole community in promoting balanced eating.  

Cllr Stocker is looking forward to launching this new initiative.  She says   

“I am delighted to be asked to launch this important initiative. There is much evidence to support the view that a balanced diet helps children to concentrate and improve their learning.  Healthy children are also more likely to attend school.  This pack gives children and parents a real chance to become healthier, to make wise choices and to become more involved in the life of their school.  This is particularly important for many schools as they take on the additional responsibilities of managing the provision of school meals.  Cumbria County Council ensures that children get a healthy well balanced meal whilst parents get value for money.”

Alan James, Manager of Cumbria Healthy Schools, says    

“Schools and parents have a real battle on their hands when faced with the pressure on children to eat unhealthy foods.  Most adverts on children’s TV are for fatty, sugary or salty foods.  Supermarkets have also been singled out recently for tempting children at checkouts. The government is encouraging youngsters to eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day and has initiated a number of schemes to promote this both in the media and in schools.  The aim is to reduce obesity, cancer and heart disease.  Unfortunately, there are many children in Cumbria who eat little fruit or vegetables at all. We hope that our pack will help to encourage children and parents to work together with the school and encourage healthy choices.  In time this will have a big impact on pupils’ achievements.” 

Director of Public Health, Dr Rebecca Wagstaff of Eden Valley PCT says 

“Levels of obesity have tripled in the last 20 years.  This pack couldn’t have come at a better time. We need to encourage healthy eating habits from a young age to tackle this increasing problem and help our children to stay healthy. We are also very pleased to see the strong partnership between health and education being extended in this way.  The Food and Health Pack will be with all schools and linked agencies by Christmas.  We all look forward to many more local initiatives taking off as a result of this valuable resource. There is a great deal of good practice in Cumbria, but we need to do much more to address the very real issues for our young people and help them to understand the impact that nutrition has on their future lives.'

The local initiative is supported by the National 5 A DAY Programme, which is funded by the New Opportunities Fund (NOF), provided by the Lottery.  Three area coordinators have been appointed to develop this work.  For further information contact Alan James on 01539 773