MPs briefed on benefits of Healthy Start Scheme in local shops

Association Convenience Stores (ACS) has briefed MPs on the important role that local shops play in ensuring that their communities have access to healthy foods ahead of a Westminster Hall debate on the Healthy Start Scheme.

Healthy Start is a government scheme for those who are at least 10 weeks pregnant, parents, carers and young children in low-income families, to help them buy healthy food and milk and get free Healthy Start vitamins. It is a digital scheme that offers a prepaid card to those applying for Healthy Start instead of paper vouchers.

Polling from ACS’ Voice of Local Shop Survey May 2022 of 1,210 retailers found that one in four retailers have increased healthy product sales and stocked more healthy products in their stores over the past three years. Any store that accepts Mastercard payments is eligible to take part in the Healthy Start scheme.

ACS chief executive James Lowman said, “Convenience retailers are committed to providing their customers with a diverse range of products and play a key role in ensuring that their customers have access to healthy foods.

“We are pleased with how the scheme has expanded to include a wider range of products, developed over time to a new digital format and become more accessible for customers. We are keen to see this progress continue and for more retailers to engage with Healthy Start to grow the benefit that customers can get from the scheme.”

The following products are included in the Healthy Start scheme and widely available in convenience stores:

• plain liquid cow’s milk, including long-life, pasteurised or ultra-heat treated (UHT) varieties of milk
• fresh, frozen and tinned fruit and vegetables including loose, pre-packed, whole, sliced, chopped or mixed fruit or vegetables, fruit in fruit juice, or fruit or vegetables in water
• cow’s milk-based infant formula milk
• fresh, dried and tinned pulses, including but not limited to lentils, beans, peas and chickpeas

A guide for retailers is available here and materials such as social media assets and till stickers to communicate Healthy Start to customers can be found here available here.