Healthy and sustainable diets for children: Opportunities for local authorities

This report analyses the role that local authorities can play in achieving healthy and sustainable diets for children. We provide a short overview of some key trends in children’s diets in the UK and introduce UNICEF’s Innocenti Framework to examine the infl uence of the ‘food system’ on children’s dietary choices. Using this framework, we review current local authorities’ interventions for infl uencing children’s diets in the UK, with a focus on England. This review is complemented by the results of a workshop with local authorities in which preliminary fi ndings were discussed vis-à-vis their own local experiences. Finally, the report provides directions for local authorities in f i ve areas of action to improve children’s diets. This research was commissioned by the Soil Association to inform their strategies for scaling up their work towards achieving healthy and sustainable diets for children and for identifying new areas for collaboration with local authorities to bring about changes using a place-based approach. We hope our research fi ndings will be useful for the work of the Soil Association, for local authorities in England and elsewhere in the UK as well as for other community organisations, groups, practitioners, and policy makers who are actively engaged in promoting children’s diets. In the context of the ongoing How to cite this report Fried, J. and Saxena, L. P. (2024). Healthy and sustainable diets for children: Opportunities for local authorities Fried, J. and Saxena, L. P. (2024). Healthy and sustainable diets for children: Opportunities for local authorities. Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry, UK. . Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry, UK. environmental and the cost-of-living crises, a focus on how we can achieve a sustainable food system that promotes, protects, and improves children’s diets while protecting the environment is vital for our children’s future acquires added signifi cance.