MPs use National School Meals week to call for more action on Children's Food.

5.01.43pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 13th Oct 2005

Healthy eating and drinking is vital for our children

The Children's Food Bill was officially presented yesterday in the House of Commons. The Private Members' Bill, sponsored by Mary Creagh, MP for Wakefield, was launched during National School Meals Week and calls on the Government to ban advertising of junk food to children and improve food education.

Annette Brooke said, "I am pleased to support the Children's Food Bill in its aims to stop the marketing of fatty, sugary and salty foods to children, and to equip all schoolchildren with cooking skills. The Government's proposals to improve school food and remove unhealthy foods from school vending machines is good news for children's health, but even more needs to be done to address increasing rates of childhood obesity".

Annette Brooke, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for children, is one of more than 200 MPs who have signed a House of Commons Early Day Motion in support of the Children's Food Bill, which has its second reading on 28th October 2005. The Bill is also supported by 150 national organisations and thousands of concerned parents.

This week, more than twenty top chefs and food writers, including Gary Rhodes, Nigel Slater, Raymond Blanc and Antony Worrall Thompson, wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to support the Bill and protect children from junk food marketing. The food critic, Sophie Grigson said:

"To change children's attitudes to food, we need to improve their food environments both in and out of school. As well as presenting good appetising food on their plates, we must protect children from advertisements which promote unhealthy food and drinks, and make sure they learn the skills that enable them to prepare delicious healthy food from fresh ingredients".

The Children's Food Bill Parliamentary launch took place on Wednesday 12 October 2005 from 3.15pm - 5.15pm in the Jubilee Room in the House of Commons.

The launch took place ahead of the Bill's Second Reading on Friday 28 October

National School Meals Week 2005 'Get Wise to Food - It Matters' takes place 10th -14th October, and is sponsored by the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA), see: www.laca.co.uk/nsmw.asp

The open letter to the Prime Minister from the 23 Chefs and food writers can be accessed at: http://www.sustainweb.org/pdf/10_10_05b.pdf

The Government's intention to introduce minimum nutrient standards for school meals and to remove junk foods from school vending machines was announced by Ruth Kelly at the Labour Party conference on Wednesday 28th September.

These proposals are now subject of a DfES consultation, details of which are available from: www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/

A list of the MPs who have signed the 'Children's Food' Early Day Motion, EDM 378, in support of the Bill, is available from: http://edmi.parliament.uk/edmi/

The 150 national organisations already support the campaign for the Children's Food Bill includes many prominent medical, health and consumer organisations, professional associations and children's charities - a full list is available from: www.sustainweb.org/child_sup.asp