Eat Better, Start Better

Did you know?
Children start learning about food at a very early age. The food they eat and the messages they receive during this time lay the foundations for the choices they make about food as they move up to school and beyond. With more than one in five children overweight or obese as they start their school reception year, it’s never been more important to help them get a healthy start in life.

We’re leading the work to help early years providers meet children’s nutritional needs more consistently, and to help families with young children to develop the cooking skills and confidence they need to cook and eat more healthily.

How can I get involved?

• Get in touch if you’re looking for support or advice to improve food in your early years setting or with settings you work with
• You might be in one of the areas where we’re already delivering training with funding from the Department for Education’s Voluntary and Community Sector Grant. Or you can commission our team to come and work with your setting or with lots of settings in your area. Get in touch for a chat.

Guidelines and resources to download or order in print:

• Our practical guide to use in your setting – including food and drink guidelines for meals and snacks, information on portion sizes, cultural and special dietary needs and managing fussy eating. Download or order hard copies
• Seasonal recipe books. Download or order hard copies

Taining
We’re working with 25 local authorities to train health and early years professionals – helping them to understand the voluntary food and drink guidelines for early years settings and to implement them in the settings in their area. We’re also training early years professionals to confidently and safely run healthy cooking activities with families.

If your local authority isn’t one of these, you can still get involved in the programme by commissioning one of our flexible training and evaluation packages.
Read more about Eat Better, Start Better training

Hear from people who’ve tried it

• Early years case study one The Old School House Nursery in Suffolk
• Early years case study two Julia Deakin, Childminder from Doncaster
• Early years case study three Kaleidoscope Children's Centre in Gloucester
• Early years case study four Crawford Children's Centre in London
• Early years case study five Early years community food workers in Lambeth

Background
Look at background information about our work in early years food

Frequently Asked Questions
Early Years FAQs