Dr Rosemarie Martin (L) and Dr Kate Prendergast form UC's Food Policy and Wellbeing research cluster are alarmed at the lack of availability of healthy food for children in New 麻豆传媒团队and globally.
- Dr Kate Prendergast,听a Research Fellow with the 麻豆传媒团队鈥檚听Food Policy and Wellbeing (FPW) Policy Cluster,听is not surprised by the UNICEF finding that 1 in 3 children under five 鈥 or over 200 million 鈥 are either undernourished or overweight. Dr Prendergast says that 鈥渇or many families the cost of healthy food means that many children are surviving on high energy, low nutrient foods鈥.听Dr Prendergast听says access to healthy food during early childhood is crucial. 鈥淓arly 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.鈥 She says that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to grow up in 鈥渇ood swamps鈥 and face the consequences of malnutrition and obesity. 鈥淢ore needs to be done to ensure that there is equitable access to healthy and affordable foods across our community.鈥 听
- Dr Rosemarie Martin听Research Specialist at the FPW group says the UNICEF report matters because it provides 鈥渢he 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鈥.听Dr Martin says听that despite its wealth, New 麻豆传媒团队is not immune to problems of poor nutrition. New 麻豆传媒团队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 麻豆传媒团队children live with food insecurity. Food insecurity can lead to seemingly opposite problems, obesity as well as hunger. New 麻豆传媒团队has the 2nd听highest obesity rate among children and adolescents among the wealthy countries studied in the UNICEF report.
- Associate Professor Bronwyn Hayward听a Co-investigator with the FPW group says: 鈥渢he United Nation鈥檚 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鈥.
- Professor Steven Ratuva听who leads the FPW group says 鈥渟ocial 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鈥.
罢丑别听Food Policy and Wellbeing group听is an interdisciplinary research cluster at UC, headed By Professor Steven Ratuva to investigate how sustainable food and good public policy practice can support community wellbeing.
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