Eligible customers shopping at Sainsbury’s may be able to recieve up to an extra £18 to spent on fruit, vegetables, beans and pulses in the run up to Christmas
Sainsbury’s has reintroduced its Healthy Start Scheme top-up for low-income families with young children in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
NHS Healthy Start is a government scheme that provides financial support and a nutritional safety net for pregnant people and families with young children on low incomes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Those on the scheme can buy fruit, vegetables and milk for free or at a discount using a Healthy Start card.
In the run up to Christmas, those shopping at Sainsbury’s on the scheme will be eligible to apply for an additional £3 a week towards fruit, vegetables, beans and pulses, including fresh, frozen, tinned and dried products.
Eligible customers can sign up to receive the weekly eGift card by email for six weeks from 18 November.
When the retailer trialled a top-up to Healthy Start in 2021, Sainsbury’s customers that redeemed a top-up card purchased an average of 13 or more portions of fruit and vegetables per basket compared to those that didn’t, according to analysis by Leeds Institute for Data Analytics.
Nilani Srithran, head of Healthy & Sustainable Diets at Sainsbury’s, said: “We know our customers want to get more fresh fruit, vegetables and fibre into family mealtimes. We’ve seen the difference extra support can make for families on Healthy Start.
“That’s why we’re bringing back our £3 weekly top-up in the run-up to Christmas, when family budgets can face additional pressures.”
Sainsbury’s is the first retailer to offer a top-up since the NHS transitioned to a pre-paid format in 2022, and it hopes the move will be a “first step towards an industry-wide initiative in support of those in the scheme”.
Analysis commissioned by The Food Foundation and Sustain in June found that extending eligibility for the scheme to all families on Universal Credit would generate substantial long-term benefits, including an estimated £7.7bn in net benefits to society over 10 years.
Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, said: “It’s great to see Sainsbury’s adding such a generous top up to Healthy Start, and being the first mover in what we hope will be industry-wide support to those on the scheme.
“This scheme reaches the most disadvantaged babies and toddlers in the country - and provides a vital nutritional safety net - but too many miss out on its benefits currently which is why we think the scheme should be urgently expanded,” she added.
