Its good when things come together.

Last week saw the culmination of a project I have been working on during my day job – developing a Food Charter for Birmingham. The idea behind the Food Charter is to co-ordinate efforts to address our worsening relationship with food. In particular we need to reverse the rising tide of obesity which threatens to reduce the quality and length of life we would otherwise enjoy. Obesity is largely driven by a poor diet, in particular far too much sugar and fat, and its rising year on year. Its also about radically reducing the level of food waste in our society – we currently waste a third of the bread we buy and in the UK we throw away 400,000 tonnes of edible potatoes. No one person or organisation can change this – hence the Food Charter.

If you want to read more about the Food Charter (and the above is only a taster) you can here. Kate Cooper who will be leading the Birmingham Food Council – charged with promoting the Food Charter – sums it up as trying to make Birmingham a city whose children eat well. Its a bold but simple and compelling aim.

So what was that about things coming together?

The following evening I was at a meeting of Acocks Green Primary School Governors. Amongst the normal busy agenda, we received a report on the new Breakfast Club. This is a project, funded by £42k pa of Pupil Premium, which involves every child at the school receiving a free breakfast of toast, juice and a piece of fruit. For those that can’t eat toast, yoghurt is offered as an alternative. The Breakfast Club has been running since the start of term.

While its early days the results seem impressive. Children who would otherwise have missed breakfast are able to concentrate throughout the morning. Consumption of fruit has risen (the government provides free fruit to all primary schools, but only in Key Stage – reception, year 1 and year 2 – the Breakfast Club provides free fruit for all children in the school). There is little or no waste – the children enjoy the food and any left over fruit is eagerly taken home. Staff also feel the Breakfast Club has contributed to very high attendance rates since the start of term (98%) with children arriving early and sitting calmly in their classrooms eating breakfast and preparing for the day.

The Breakfast Club is by no means an answer to all our food related problems, but it certainly looks like a great first step to turning Birmingham into a city whose children eat well.