Ellie Bealing, Somerset Member of Youth Parliament’s campaign is ‘Young People – Strong, Healthy Lives’ and aims to increase conversations around body image and nutrition. As part of the priorities for the Somerset Children and Young People’s Plan Ellie has worked with Youth Forum to create a survey around the food available at school and college canteens. Find out more about the survey and how Ellie intends to use the findings.
My passion is for ensuring that we all develop more positive relationships with our body, in particular towards our eating habits. As a result, the work of Youth Forum in producing a survey on the quality of school meals, with the input of young people’s voices in the creation process, serves as a valuable tool to see how these attitudes are influenced when we’re receiving an education. We should all feel able to access nutritious, plentiful food that allows us to achieve our full potentials.
Using the feedback of this survey, I am excited to widen my understanding of the needs of young people when eating at school, as I recognise the gaps in providing the meals that we need. My campaign needs the attitudes of as many people as possible, and so by engaging with focus groups to hear their testimonies, I will begin to fill in those gaps, which only first-hand experience can fill. It is my hope that by combining this with the knowledge of professionals, we can begin to implement tenable resources to help deliver the best quality food, complimented by nurturing messages around our health.
Ellie
If you are a young person in school or college in Somerset and would like to take part in the survey, please click here.
If you would like to read the new 2024-30 Children and Young People’s Plan, click here.
Somerset Youth Parliament campaigns
Each Member of Youth Parliament works on a campaign during their term, which is supported by their Deputies and the Advisory Group. It allows us to understand what changes young people want to see in the communities they live in and makes sure that those views are heard by Somerset’s decision makers.
To find out more about our Member of Youth Parliament’s campaigns visit our Campaigns page.
