The Diet of Children Attending a Holiday Programme in the UK: Adherence to UK Food-Based Dietary Guidelines and School Food Standards

Crilley, Eilish, Brownlee, Iain and Defeyter, Greta (2021) The Diet of Children Attending a Holiday Programme in the UK: Adherence to UK Food-Based Dietary Guidelines and School Food Standards. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19 (1). p. 55. ISSN 1660-4601

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010055

Abstract

Child poverty rates are rising, particularly in London, putting more children at risk of experiencing food insecurity. Holiday programmes in the UK provide children who receive free schools meals during term time with access to free/low-cost holiday clubs offering nutritious food and enriching activities during the school holidays. This study aimed to investigate whether children’s dietary intake was more adherent to the UK Eatwell Guide throughout the day and meets School Food Standards (SFS) for the lunchtime meal on a club attendance versus a non-attendance day. A repeated measures design was used to assess data on the food and drink intake of children (n = 57) aged 7–16 years old using a 24 h recall method on two separate occasions: once based on an attending club day and once based on a non-attending club day. The results showed children’s diet quality improved (p = 0.007) on an attending club day (mean: 58.0 ± SD 12.6) versus a non-attending club day (51.8 ± 15.0). Children also more closely adhered to the SFS (p = 0.001) on an attending club day (median = 9, interquartile range = 8–9) versus a non-attending club day (median = 7, interquartile range = 6–8). This suggests that holiday programmes targeting children who receive free school meals during term time have the potential to improve children’s dietary behaviours during the school holidays, underlining the importance of holiday programmes to support food security.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding information: This research was funded by a grant to the last author from the Mayors Fund for London and Northumbria University. I.B. has been partially funded by the European Joint Programming Initiative “A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life” (JPI HDHL) and of the ERANET Cofund ERA-HDHL (GA N° 696295 of the EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme) during the dietary data analysis and manuscript preparation linked to this publication.
Uncontrolled Keywords: diet quality; nutrition; holiday programme; Eatwell guide; school food standards
Subjects: B400 Nutrition
C800 Psychology
L500 Social Work
Department: Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Applied Sciences
Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Psychology
Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Depositing User: Elena Carlaw
Date Deposited: 23 Dec 2021 12:38
Last Modified: 23 Dec 2021 12:45
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/48046

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