NOF Goes International

The foods provided to young children around the world offer more than just nutrition, they tell stories of culture, values and identity.

Food is an emotional topic, deeply rooted in our cultures, celebrations and traditions.

As we prepare to take Nourishing Our Future to the international stage at EECERA 2025, we find ourselves wondering:

How do different cultures view the role of food in early childhood?

…and what can we learn from each other?

We’re incredibly proud to be presenting insights from the Nourishing Our Future project at this year’s EECERA conference under the theme:

‘Early Education for All: Celebrating Diversity and Seeking Inclusion’.

Our contribution: ‘Nourishing Our Future: Exploring sustainable food practices in Essex early years settings’ sits within the strand of Sustainability in Early Childhood Education.

We bring together research and practice to examine how food provision, education, and environments in childminding, preschool, and nursery settings intersect with current issues of sustainability and inclusion.

🔍 With childhood obesity rising and food insecurity affecting over half of households in England, we urgently need to rethink how we nourish our youngest children and support them to navigate a convenience driven, highly processed food environment.

At the conference we’ll be discussing:

🥦 How we might address rising food insecurities for our most vulnerable families.
🏫 The inclusivity of food education across diverse settings
🌱 How early years spaces can champion sustainable, positive food environments
🥫 The sustainability impact of increasingly prevalent convenience and ultra-processed foods in early years settings.
🍎 The rising impact of convenience food on children’s food preferences, allergies and intolerances.

We’re thrilled to be joining global early childhood colleagues in Bratislava, Slovakia, to share findings, connect across borders, and keep pushing this vital agenda forward.

👇 We’d love to hear from early childhood educators across the world:

✨ What are young children eating in your settings?
✨ What does food provision look like where you are?
✨ What challenges or opportunities do you experience in creating meaningful food experiences for children?

👇 Join the discussion in the comments box below.