More than 50 public health directors, sector experts and healthcare professionals sent a letter to Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock calling on Government to allocate additional funding to the Healthy Start scheme, which supports low-income families.
The letter urges government to increase the value of the voucher to £4.25 a week.
The value of Healthy Start vouchers has not increased since 2009.
The letter addresses one of three key recommendations from the National Food Strategy and footballer Marcus Rashford’s #EndChildFoodPoverty campaign, alongside expansion of Free School Meals and holiday food provision.
It is also part of Marcus Rashford’s petition, which more than 1 million people have signed to date.
The Healthy Start scheme provides pregnant women and low-income families in England, Wales and Northern Ireland with children under four with free vitamins and food vouchers to purchase vegetables, fruit, pulses and milk.
The letter urges the government to act as well as businesses.
The letter asks to put £115 million/year of additional funding towards improving the Healthy Start scheme by implementing the recommendations proposed in Part One of the National Food Strategy:
- Increase the value of Healthy Start vouchers to £4.25 per week
- Expand the scheme to every pregnant woman and household with children under four in receipt of Universal Credit or equivalent benefits
- Fund a communications campaign costing £5 million
“£3.10 is not a lot, it’s better than nothing of course, but a higher value would make a difference. If we had £4.25 a week from Healthy Start we could buy milk which would help, and more fruit and veg. It’s enough for a week, but only for one child and I have three.” Carolina, Southwark Healthy Start recipient
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