Educating children on the benefits of a healthy diet has never been so important. Childhood obesity is a significant health issue, with it estimated that today in England, one in three children will be obese or overweight when they finish primary school.

Receiving good nutrition during childhood lays the foundation for a healthy life, but it is education about food that truly empowers children to make informed choices and foster lifelong healthy habits.

To help support schools provide pupils with effective and impactful food education, school meals provider, apetito have launched a suite of free lesson plans titled ‘Mission Nutrition’. The first in the series are set of Key Stage Two Lesson plans, which are now available for all schools partnering with apetito.

These have been created by apetito’s in-house Dietitians, Chefs and Nutritionists with the aim of creating educational content in line with the national curriculum that support teachers when delivering lessons on food and nutrition.

Head Development Chef at apetito, Jethro Lawrence explains why educating pupils about food is so critical:

"It is so important for our children to be educated about how nutritious food can be delicious. The benefit of knowing where certain ingredients come from can help develop important life skills. Food knowledge promotes healthy eating habits, enhances cognitive skills, encourages children to try new flavours and builds their confidence around food."

Speaking about why apetito developed Mission Nutrition, Rupert Weber, General Manager for Education at apetito states:

“Whilst providing schools high-quality, nutritious meals is at the heart of what we do here at apetito, we see our responsibility as going further than that. As a company with lots of in-house nutritional and dietetic expertise, we are passionate about supporting schools to effectively educate their pupils on food and nutrition.

“Children spend a considerable amount of their time at school, which makes it the ideal place for them to learn about nutrition and foster good food habits. Through the Mission Nutrition resources, we want to support and empower teachers to give pupils a hands-on understanding of the importance of having a balanced diet, and ultimately, ensure that pupils develop healthy eating habits to support their health and wellbeing.”

Learn more about apetito’s Mission Nutrition here.