Ambitious new pilots tackling obesity through schools & communities

• Lambeth and Croydon each win c£600k to pioneer school-based & community projects to improve health and attainment

• Five-year pilot – Lighter London - aims to tackle child obesity and diet related health issues

• Major retailers Morrisons, Sainsbury’s & Tesco sign up to support Lighter London boroughs

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson today announced two London boroughs will launch major programmes to tackle child obesity through better diets and food education.

In a UK first, the boroughs will make changes to the way food is served in schools, hospitals, and - working with major supermarkets and other retailers - on the high street.

The aim is to show that joined up thinking can improve health and academic attainment of pupils and also of adults in the local communities they serve.

10.8 per cent of London’s children are already dangerously obese when they start primary school and by age 11, one in five are obese. In London, child obesity levels are the highest in England.

Poor diet is linked to further complications later in life, ranging from Type 2 diabetes to cancer whilst the cost to health budgets has been estimated at £5billion a year currently and is rising.

The winning boroughs - Croydon and Lambeth - have been selected following a commitment by the Mayor and the Department for Education to fund two pilot schemes using the findings of the School Food Plan written by Leon restaurant founders Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent.

The DfE has provided £600,000 matched by the Mayor with a further £200,000 contribution from the innocent foundation.

The ‘Lighter London’ programme will bring together a coalition of agencies working in partnership across a targeted area to tackle obesity issues in a coordinated way not seen before in the UK. This includes the Mayor’s office, the winning boroughs, the DfE, Defra, Public Health England and the Department of Health.

Major retailers Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco have also already signed up to get involved with the aim to sign up more businesses and organisations.

Work will start from September with the boroughs set to implement or expand a range of projects based in schools and designed to engage whole communities.

The aim is to improve the quality of food available to schools and communities; increase understanding of how diet impacts on health; develop practical cookery skills; and foster a love of good food.

Projects being developed in the pilot areas by the boroughs include: Croydon - grants for community cooking and healthy eating projects; food growing on estates; food business start-up funds; cookery classes in the community; initiatives to reduce sugar intake by pupils. Lambeth - free school breakfasts; food growing projects linked to cooking lessons for children and parents; develop community food hubs in schools; launch fruit and veg voucher schemes in every borough children's centre; redistribute food set to go to waste to families in food poverty.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: 'We want to prove the case that developing healthy food habits in schools can benefit not only pupils but also the wider communities that they serve. Croydon and Lambeth will put this to the test through a series of initiatives designed to improve health - helping to tackle the serious issues of obesity and poor diet - and boosting academic achievement. As our city grows, it's vital we equip our kids with the skills they need to not only get a job but to see them lead a happy and healthier life. We can also help trim the multi-billion pound burden on the taxpayer stemming from unhealthy eating and poor food related illness.’

Additional projects being proposed by the project team in the pilot areas include:

• Setting up holiday breakfast and lunch clubs in schools;

• Projects offering healthy cheap food to those most in need;

• Holding family cooking classes in supermarkets and community shops;

• Offering financial incentives for small food businesses to sell healthy food;

• Changing supermarket store layouts to make buying healthy food cheaper and easier;

• Making hospital food better through changes in local boroughs procurement practices;

• Holding food festivals and celebrations through the year;

• Using the Mayor’s existing takeaway toolkit initiative to encourage fast food outlets to become healthier;

• Offering more fruit and vegetables to young mothers through voucher schemes.

Henry Dimbleby, co-author of the School Food Plan, said: ‘The ambition is to show that by making radical changes across all sections of society - albeit in a small area - we can make a big dent in the levels of obesity. We hope to create a proven model that can be rolled out not only across the UK, but across the world. We are going to bring in ideas and experts from around the world to help us trial approaches, making these two boroughs a focus for the global health community and proving that together we can tackle this problem. It will make people healthier, happier and remove a massive burden from the NHS.’

Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food, said: 'London has the highest rates of obesity in England which is fuelling a shocking uplift in life-limiting conditions such as Type 2 diabetes whilst presenting huge challenges for our public services. This is a looming health crisis which threatens to lower the life span our children to below that of today's adults. Lighter London is a UK-first. It will bring together schools working at the heart of our communities with a raft of other organisations to tackle poor diet and in both children and adults.' The announcement was made today at Christ Church primary school in Brixton which has embedded food growing and cooking into its curriculum. The pilots were selected after a competitive process involving 20 boroughs. Evaluation will be undertaken by the Greater London Authority and external evaluators.