Close
This project explored the operation and impact of food banks that operate at early years education settings for children under five (nurseries, children's centres nursery schools and play groups).
This project was funded by the Monday Charitable Trust and ran from February 2023 to August 2023.
Background
This study emerged in response to the then-current cost of living crisis and the increase in child poverty (CPAG, 2022), and as a result of our growing concern in HHCP for the impact on children’s education. Foodbanks have increased in number in recent years, with demand rising recently due to the cost-of-living crisis (Trussell Trust, 2022).
It is well established that providing free meals for children living in low-income households within educational settings makes a considerable difference to their developmental outcomes (Garthwaite et al 2021; Cohen et al. 2021), but the impact of free food provision for the whole family is less well researched. It may be that providing for the whole family in a familiar setting such as a nursery improves health and reduces stress among the whole family, with resultant effects on the child’s educational outcomes. We already know that the pandemic had a significant impact on families with young children living on lower incomes, especially for single parents (Bramley et al, 2021).
This project expanded upon an HHCP project begun in 2022 on food banks in primary schools, funded by the British Education Research Association. This project has explored how free food provision based in schools has had an impact on children’s learning and physical activity. This project sought to explore these same impacts as relevant to younger children.
Researching this younger age group was important as our review of the literature on child hunger conducted for this project indicated that the impact of malnutrition was greater in the early years, and could be long-lasting (WHO, 2006; UNICEF, 2021). We also knew that increased parental stress, for example when there is not enough food, has an impact on young children’s outcomes.
The aim of this project was to consider how food banks in nurseries operate, the impact on children (as perceived by educators) and what the advantages and disadvantages were for the EY setting.
Methodology
We explored in depth how food banks worked at five early years settings. At each setting, we interviewed the manager or lead practitioner, three other practitioners, and any staff involved in the food bank, including those from local charities or providers who partnered with them, or family support workers.
For ethical and practical reasons, as they are a hard-to-reach population which we would not wish to burden further, we did not interview parents who used the food bank. Thus the study focused on the impact from the point of view of the setting in the main, with parents’ views represented only via staff.
Interviews focused on the perceived impact of the food bank on children, the barriers and challenges involved in organising it, how families used it, and how the school managed the additional workload and the overall impact on the setting.
Team
Project lead
- Professor Alice Bradbury
Members
Outputs