London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) has partnered with food charity, City Harvest to develop a pilot scheme.

The scheme will utilise surplus food to help support children from disadvantaged backgrounds with additional hours at nursery.

Since November 2022, surplus food donated from City Harvest across five of LEYF’s 39 nurseries (located in Wandsworth Bridge, Stockwell, Colville, Eastbury and Earls Court) has been used for over 60,000 healthy meals for children . This additionally has saved the early years organisationnearly £5,000 over the first three months of the programme.

The partnership is now being expanded to a further five LEYF nurseries. It will produce an additional 500,000 meals over the next 12 months. This will reduce food waste and save LEYF £40,000. The group will then be able to provide five children with a years’ worth each of additional hours in nursery. This forms part of LEYF’s Doubling Down programme. The programme gives children locked out of 30 hours of government-funded early years education an additional 15 hours in nursery. These children are ineligible for the extra hours simply because their parents are either unemployed or on low incomes.

LEYF pilot scheme

To date, the partnership has delivered significant outcomes for children, chefs, families, and reduced food waste. A completely unexpected outcome of the partnership has been that children’s cultural capital has improved from trying new foods. The eclectic contents of City Harvest deliveries means children are offered new, exciting tastes helping develop their interest in food. Purple carrots and Asian pears have been a particular highlight. LEYF has also been able to benefit the families it supports across three LEYF nurseries which provide food banks. The group ensures that fresh produce is offered to struggling families. 

June O’Sullivan MBE, chief executive of London Early Years Foundation, said: “For many years we’ve been tackling food waste and food poverty to help those families faced with disadvantage and struggling with the cost of living. This new initiative with City Harvest now means we can add even more value to a child’s Early Years education by providing these crucial extra Government funded hours to some of the children who need it the most. This will help them level up and reduce the attainment gap that emerges from 22 months in children from poorer backgrounds.”

Sarah Calcutt, City Harvest chief executive added: “Through free food, we’re able to bridge social inequalities that no one child should suffer in 2023. For City Harvest, it is vital that our food has a positive impact that goes beyond each specific meal. In this special case of working with LEYF nurseries, redistributing our food for free has manifold benefits for young children and their families. Improving the diets of children at risk of malnutrition and enabling additional permanent nursery places for those unable to access the same level of Early Years education and care is key. We hope that together we can continue to have a positive impact on the most vulnerable children in our city.”