London Borough of Newham: We are Food Secure 11-19 project

Sitting in the inner part of East London, the London Borough of Newham is the fourth largest London borough, with a population of almost 400,000. Around 84,000 children and young people under 18 live in the Borough, of whom approximately a third live in food insecurity.

Newham Council, along with its partners, is adopting a complex systems approach to building food security among young people aged 11 to 19. Nutrition plays a crucial role during adolescence, the second-fastest growth phase after the first two years of life, and is vital for long-term adult health. Food insecurity is a major contributor to poor health outcomes, and Newham’s goal is to shift how food insecurity interventions are framed, designed and delivered for this age group.

This case study outlines the approach taken over the past three years, highlighting system-wide changes, impacts, lessons learned, and future steps.

Newham has, according to the 2021 census, one of the youngest populations in England: approximately 40,700 young people aged 11-19 live in the borough, with around one third living in food poverty.

In recent years, the number of young people experiencing food insecurity in the borough has risen, driven by the twin forces of COVID-19 and the Cost of Living Crisis. Simultaneously, constrained school budgets along with widespread government budget cuts have severely impacted the youth sector, leaving fewer opportunities for young people to engage outside of school. This has made it a difficult time to champion new ideas, some of which naturally need additional funding to get off the ground. Conversely, an outcome of these challenges is that awareness of food insecurity and the importance of nutrition for this age group has grown, leading to increased momentum and energy to address the issue.

Addressing food insecurity for this age group presents unique opportunities and challenges. Few existing food security programmes in the UK have focused on 11-19 year olds. Models that work for other age groups and contexts - such as younger children or adults - don’t work well for teenagers, who have specific and nuanced needs and challenges. What may appear to be straightforward, individual-level issues around food security for teenagers are often influenced by broader, complex systemic factors. Without tackling these larger system drivers, it’s hard to tackle the issue at an individual level.

The We are Food Secure team sought to address:

• What can be done to help 11-19 year olds get good nutrition in the face of challenges such as the cost of living crisis?
• How are their experiences different from other age groups?
• Can any new levers for action be identified that will improve things for this age group?

Finally, Newham has an ethnically diverse community, and cultural differences around food - especially for young people - can be tricky to navigate. Finding ways to work around these challenges required innovative thinking, ideas and an openness to trying - and learning - something new.

The We are Food Secure team focused on taking a complex systems approach to looking at the specific levers, nuances and needs that can be understood and worked with to address food insecurity among this population. The team built partnerships with existing organisations working to tackle food insecurity as well as sustainable interventions tailored to local needs and specific to this age group. A central framing for activities was creating ‘food havens’ which focuses on moving away from food ‘deserts’ and ‘swamps’ to oases and havens, promoting a more positive and asset-based approach to improving food offerings. The Newham team have applied this framing to their work with secondary schools and youth settings in the borough.

They focused on two areas through the project:

• In schools: Building on existing work undertaken previously across the borough, auto-enrolment for free school meals is being considered for schools across Newham. Other activities include mapping the existing food landscape for young people in schools, delivering a whole-school intervention that helps broaden the approach to the issue, attending working groups across the council and generally contributing to momentum. A Whole School Food Approach (WSFA) - a holistic concept that offers pupils healthier and sustainable food choices in the long term - is a key principle that underpins efforts.
• Out of school/youth zones: Food security for this age group is an issue in youth sector locations but to date there has been less systematic attention to the challenge and the solutions compared with the educational setting. Community-driven initiatives, including youth-led food pantries and food based activities can play a crucial role in promoting food security and healthy eating habits among Newham's youth. The project has developed thinking around strategy and approaches in this setting, and is trialling innovative interventions such as skills training for youth workers and young people in selected youth zones in the borough.

Working to change a complex system, Newham has focused on being a catalyst for shifting mindsets and changing the way existing systems work across the borough. Activities have been informed throughout by young people’s perspectives on food and how it might work better for them.

Immediate health outcomes are challenging to measure and less evident due to the project’s short timeframe and limited funding. However, the initiative has laid a strong foundation for long-term health improvements for 11-19 year-olds in the borough.

Key changes include improved understanding around food options and quality in schools and youth settings, as well as a shift in how young people are supported to access sufficient, nutritious food in the right place at the right time, tailored to their specific needs. These changes set the stage for potential long-term health benefits, supported by an increased focus and resources dedicated to youth food security.

Newham is delivering a constellation of activities that build a legacy for this work. These include:

• Funding for a core team member: this post was originally funded by the SPHL grant; and due to the demonstrated value of this post, in April 2025 Newham Council is planning to provide continuation funding, which will be aimed at direct school engagement. This will support ongoing activities and strengthen the relationship between the council and the secondary schools around food.
• Out of school intervention planning: the team is developing a model and resources to help plan out-of-school interventions, including further stakeholder consultations to identify needs and possible actions. This involves interviewing national youth organisations about food insecurity in youth spaces and planning to deliver Nutrition Kitchen skills training for youth workers and young people in selected youth zones in the borough, which is a first-time initiative.
• Secondary School Meals: the team is pushing forward with planning for wider entitlement to free school meals at secondary school, which will significantly impact this age group.
• Stakeholder engagement activities: with local, national and international audiences including people and organisations focused on young people’s health or development, food security, the role of schools and educational settings outside formal education and the development of out-of-school environments.

Finally, to disseminate learnings, influence future policy and funding decisions and further systems change, Newham has created a wide range of resources. These include:

• Final project report: an outward facing summary detailing activities and achievements during the SPHL programme. This report includes three system maps and deep dives into educational settings and out-of-school settings.
• Five research briefings: to share findings and recommendations across topics including Food in the school curriculum, Food growing in school settings, Economics of food & food insecurity in the secondary school setting, Food insecurity for young people in out-of-school settings and National and local policy context for reducing young people’s food insecurity in an inner London borough.
• Report on youth engagement: drawing together the work in different domains and shining a spotlight on messages that work well for young people.
• Slide deck: summary of the main findings and next steps, as a basis for talks and presentations
• Policy briefings: for different audiences
• Webpage: a ‘home’ for all outputs on the Association for Young People's website.

Newham believes this mix of resources, stakeholder and planning activities are essential for maximising the opportunity for continued systems change post-programme, as well as raising the profile for Newham public health and Association for Young People's Health (AYPH) as thought/practice leaders in this space. Activities, learnings, blueprints and recommendations can provide models for systems change in other localities beyond the project itself.

There are three key learning themes from Newhams SPHL activities:

For further information contact Jennifer Martin, Assistant Public Health Strategist [email protected]

• All project outputs can be found on the Association for Young People's website
• Nutrition Kitchen
• London Borough of Newham: Food insecurity for 11-19 year olds 
• About Shaping Places for Healthier Lives

• Newham’s We Are Food Secure 11-19 project – how is it going?
• Reimagining food in secondary schools
• London Borough of Newham: Food insecurity for 11-19 year olds
• Could secondary school ‘food havens’ help improve food security
• Gathering stakeholders to discuss the food offer in the youth sector: Newham’s ‘We are Food Secure 11-19’ project