Eating well is essential to living well, working well and staying well and yet nutrition and healthy eating is widely undervalued and misunderstood.
As a nation we are struggling with increasing levels of diet related ill-health which is costing society at all levels, through poor productivity and increased pressures on our health care system, to worsening wellbeing and quality of life at the individual level. Our food culture and food environment often encourages poor quality food choices that focus more on convenience over nourishment, and cost over quality. Especially with those on lower incomes, it can be a challenge to even access and afford healthier food options; and increasingly this is creating a population that is increasingly over-fed but undernourished.
RaisingNutrition is a social enterprise with a mission to raise nutrition standards and knowledge by working with organisations and individuals that can help to influence our food environment and food culture, so that healthier food choices can be easier. We are working with others to enable, encourage and empower individuals to enjoy healthier, nutritious food choices which in turn will support better health, wellbeing, performance and productivity.
Alongside working with commercial food-service businesses and caterers through our unique accreditation programme, we are committed to helping the more vulnerable, for example those facing food insecurity, to be better informed and more able to access healthy food options. We are also committed to supporting food & nutrition education for children and families as we know how critical it is to create the right diet and eating habits when young to support ongoing growth, development and support a life-time's health and wellbeing.
Any money raised here through your generous support will directly support our work providing education, training and resources to community groups and charities, providing food to those most in need, and to schools in lower-income communities. We know that through improved knowledge and support , they will be empowered to improve nutrition in their food offerings, raising the wellbeing of those they support.
We have already developed a training and accreditation programme that can be used for community groups and charities, but with funding we can pilot this further, and develop additional resources to ensure it offers practical support that can be put quickly to use to create impact.
The One Can Trust Food Bank is an example of how our support can help. Working with us through our accreditation programme has led to increased fruit and vegetables within their food parcels (and they are working to increase this further); they have stopped asking for or buying high fat, high salt and high sugar foods, such as biscuits, focusing more on fresh and less-processed foods whenever possible. This means that families and individuals in crisis, receiving their food parcels, well benefit from a more nourishing parcel of food that will better support their wellbeing.
Please do also sign and share the RaisingNutrition Charter via our website, to help raise awareness of the importance of nutrition in health and wellbeing, and promote some key sustainable food and nutrition principles that can help the health of people and planet.
Thank you for your support and please do get in contact if you want to know more.