Blue Peter puts food back on the menu with its biggest-ever Appeal: Mission Nutrition.

As world food prices sky-rocket, malnutrition reigns large, and the credit crunch sees poverty take its toll, Blue Peter willtomorrow launch Mission Nutrition to help children around the world eat and grow better food. 

For its biggest appeal yet, not only is Blue Peter partnering for the first time with three charities: ContinYou, the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens and Save the Children, but it’s also reverting back to its traditional and most successful fundraiser – the good old bring and buy sale.

Through Mission Nutrition, Blue Peter will help children in the UK, as well as in Bangladesh, Colombia and South Africa, making the appeal truly global as the long-running children's programme celebrates its 50th birthday.

Tim Levell, editor of Blue Peter, said: “Every five seconds, another child dies from hunger related causes.  We hope Mission Nutrition will present a real opportunity for children to understand more about food – where it comes from, how to grow their own, what is healthy and what the challenges are to eating well for children around the world. We want to put 2 million meals on plates. It’s an ambitious mission, but one we know we’ll be able to achieve with people’s help.”

All money raised by families around the UK will help:

• Provide daily meals for children in Bangladesh, Colombia and South Africa through Save the Children
• Set up new breakfast clubs across the UK through ContinYou
• Help children in all four countries grow their own food by setting up gardens in schools and communities through the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens and Save the Children.

Helen Skelton, Blue Peter presenter, said, “It’s time for everyone to muck in! This is a huge mission! We need to open breakfast clubs so children get a proper meal to start their day, because one in five children in the UK is not eating breakfast at all! And I saw for myself how bad situations can get when I was in Bangladesh last month. Half the children there are stunted in growthbecause they haven’t had the nutritious food they need to develop properly.

We’re also going to be learning how to grow food so we know more about what we’re eating and can eat better in the future. Please join us and get involved in this appeal. Let’s start getting meals on plates!”

Malnutrition is the single biggest cause of child deaths in the world. And with global food prices 83 per cent higher now than they were three years ago,this Appeal is launching at a crucial time. In Bangladesh alone - one of the 4 countries benefitting from  Mission Nutrition -evidence shows that increases in the price of rice could result in 900,000 more malnourished children.

Some examples of how the money will be spent

• £1 buys lunch for a schoolchild in Columbia
• £5 buys a pack of vegetable and herb seeds suitable for indoor growing at home or at school in the UK
• £40 buys 100 meals for children in Bangladesh
• £150 could provide a family with tools and skills to set up a garden in S Africa
• £250 will help create a food-growing garden for a UK school
• £350 gets a breakfast club up and running in a UK school 

The appeal’s new website launching tomorrow, www.missionnutrition.org.uk, gives more information about some of the children Mission Nutrition will be helping, and explains the challenges they face to getting enough good food. This site also hosts order forms for the following downloadable materials:

• a poster
• educational resources – nine activities to use with groups to get them learning about the Mission
• a fundraising guide, with stickers and a poster to help set up your own bring and buy

ContinYou- Changing lives through learning

ContinYou is one of the UK’s leading learning organisations, using learning to tackle inequality and build social inclusion.

We aim to offer opportunities to people who have gained the least from formal education and training. We work with a range of professional people, organisations and agencies to enhance what they do to change lives through learning.

ContinYou is renowned for its pioneering experience and expertise in supporting schools and communities in a range of initiatives that have promoted, improved and measured the impact of breakfast clubs on children’s health and achievement.

Breakfast Club Plus is an innovative and much in demand programme run by ContinYou designed to support the development of breakfast clubs across the UK.  It was established in response to a successful pilot project in 1998.

Since 1998 Breakfast Club Plus has:

• run a number of national breakfast club schemes (over £200K has been granted to clubs to date)
• conducted research into breakfast club provision
• developed a training programme for local authorities, Local Strategic Partnerships and schools
• produced clear and accessible guides and resources for breakfast club staff
• set up the only UK website dedicated to supporting breakfast club development
• run a number of pilot initiatives to test new ideas, such as singing breakfast clubs and breakfast reading clubs

To find out more about ContinYou’s work, and to download free resources, visit our website: www.continyou.org.uk.

Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens (FCFCG)

The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens is a charity which supports, represents and promotes community-managed farms, gardens, allotments and school farms, creating opportunities for communities to grow. FCFCG helps empower local people, often in deprived areas, to build closer, healthier and more integrated communities across the UK. We also provide the national face of the community farm and garden movement, working to raise its profile with policy-makers, funders and the public.

FCFCG works with 120 city and school farms, nearly 1,000 community gardens, a growing number of community-managed allotments and at least 200 groups in development.

These community projects create a patch of welcoming green space to visit, and offer an amazing array of benefits and opportunities which can include education programmes, play schemes, healthy living initiatives, work and skills training, social enterprises, volunteer opportunities, environmental schemes, horticultural therapy groups, facilities for people with disabilities…the list goes on.

Website: www.farmgarden.org.uk 

Save the Children

Save the Children is the world’s independent children’s charity. We’re outraged that millions of children are still denied proper healthcare, food, education and protection. We’re working flat out to get every child their rights and we’re determined to make further, faster changes. How many? How fast? It’s up to you. For further information about our work please visit www.savethechildren.org.uk