How do children and young people want to access food in their communities?

Over 45,000 young people shared their views with Barnardo’s and Co-op via VotesforSchools (an organisation that works with schools and colleges across the UK to support discussions on topical issues and collect young people’s views). They also spoke to 31 young people in six focus groups and heard from over 10,000 Co-op members. They found that:

• 23% of secondary and college voters (over 45,000) with VotesforSchools said that they cannot access healthy food in their community.
• In the focus groups young people told us that cost and accessibility were key barriers to them when it came to accessing food. They also wanted to get more involved in their local food networks and learn new cooking skills.
• Over 90% of Co-op members support our recommendations for change. This includes establishing a local food partnership in every area and addressing holiday hunger after the Holiday Activities and Food Programme ends in March 2025.

 What local authorities and Government can do: 

1. Establish a local food partnerships in every local authority area, directly including young people from the outset.

What retailers can do: 

2. Consider ways that 16 and 17 year-olds can access discounted food by amending the terms of their retail discount schemes or considering the introduction of other discounts. 

What Government can do: 

3. Set out plans to address holiday hunger after the Holiday Activities and Food Programme ends in March 2025, including efforts to increase uptake and extend eligibility.  
4. Make food available to young people in existing afterschool clubs and youth services, including in Family Hubs and the proposed Young Futures Hubs.
5. Remove the reduced rate for under 25s in Universal Credit to ensure young people can afford essentials.  
6. Review the Healthy Start scheme to ensure its value is adequate and uptake improves.

Kate Howard, Children's Food Campaign Coordinator, responds:

This fascinating report shows just how important the spaces that young people spend their time in are for their health and wellbeing. It’s shocking that a quarter of secondary school pupils have said they can’t access healthy food in their community when they should be able to find nutritious food easily.

We support the recommendations of this report, which align closely with our own work on food partnerships, as well as the recommendations we’ve launched in our new tool looking at how revenue from a new levy on the food industry could be spent to support children’s health.

We look forward to seeing how the Government responds to these recommendations.

Download the report