Dr Rosemarie Martin (L) and Dr Kate Prendergast form ҕl's Food Policy and Wellbeing research cluster are alarmed at the lack of availability of healthy food for children in New Zealand and globally.
- Dr Kate Prendergast,a Research Fellow with the ҕl’sFood Policy and Wellbeing (FPW) Policy Cluster,is not surprised by the UNICEF finding that 1 in 3 children under five – or over 200 million – are either undernourished or overweight. Dr Prendergast says that “for many families the cost of healthy food means that many children are surviving on high energy, low nutrient foods”.Dr Prendergastsays access to healthy food during early childhood is crucial. “Early childhood is a time of rapid physical growth and brain development. What a child eats during these early years can have lifelong consequences on educational attainment and health outcomes.” She says that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to grow up in “food swamps” and face the consequences of malnutrition and obesity. “More needs to be done to ensure that there is equitable access to healthy and affordable foods across our community.”
- Dr Rosemarie MartinResearch Specialist at the FPW group says the UNICEF report matters because it provides “the most comprehensive assessment yet of the triple burden that children growing up today face of malnutrition, undernutrition, and hidden hunger caused by a lack of essential nutrients”.Dr Martin saysthat despite its wealth, New Zealand is not immune to problems of poor nutrition. New Zealand needs to make sure that the right foods are accessible to all, including those of limited means. According to the Child Poverty Monitor technical report, one in five New Zealand children live with food insecurity. Food insecurity can lead to seemingly opposite problems, obesity as well as hunger. New Zealand has the 2ndhighest obesity rate among children and adolescents among the wealthy countries studied in the UNICEF report.
- Associate Professor Bronwyn Haywarda Co-investigator with the FPW group says: “the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) includes targets to end hunger, and all forms of malnutrition, particularly as it impacts adolescent girls, by 2030. This UNICEF report is a grim reminder the challenge is getting more difficult not less”.
- Professor Steven Ratuvawho leads the FPW group says “social protection is now seen as a critical mechanism to address problems such as food insecurity. There are indigenous forms of social protection within Pacific communities, which have often been dismissed. The UNICEF report noted social protection systems were crucial for supporting good nutrition in children, adolescents and women”.
ճFood Policy and Wellbeing groupis an interdisciplinary research cluster at ҕl, headed By Professor Steven Ratuva to investigate how sustainable food and good public policy practice can support community wellbeing.
Read the.
