HISTORIC NUTRITION FOR HEALTH AND WELLBEING GRANTS THROUGH THE AIM FOUNDATION
GRANTS MADE THROUGH AIM IN 2022/23
Our current focus areas are increasing the understanding of nutrition and its importance for health amongst health practitioners and reducing childhood obesity.
All the charities supported in this strategic area are funded from profits from Cytoplan. In 2021/22 £450,000 and 2022/23 £400,000 was transferred to The AIM Foundation.
GRANTS MADE THROUGH AIM IN 2022/23
EXAMPLE GRANTS
AIM has been funding the work of Nutritank CIC since 2019 that began with their work as medical students to organise nutrition for health and wellbeing events within universities. Over the past 5 years, they have successfully made nutrition and wellbeing education for health professionals accessible and affordable by offering free webinars and in person educational events.
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In April 2023 A further three year commitment of £40,000 pa was made to continue and develop as a Continuing Medical Education provider for topics related to food, nutrition and lifestyle medicine.
Since 2020 AIM has been funding IHV with their work updating the ‘Healthy Weight, Healthy Nutrition’ Health Visitor Champion training, creating training to meet the needs of the wider early years workforce, developing a digital toolkit and expanding the programme to included oral health and physical activity.
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In April 2023 a further three year commitment of £40,000 pa was made to build upon this success of maintaining the engagement of the workforce and developing and embedding the principles of effective practice in HWHN, physical activity and oral health across the UK, including the recruitment of new Champions and Ambassadors.
Culinary Medicine UK CIC was started as a non-profit organisation to tackle the problem of poor nutrition training for health professionals. They create innovative and engaging education for health professionals and health professional students that combine nutrition, health and culinary expertise to create nutrition education, events & practical digital resources in their kitchen-based classroom.
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AIM has been supporting them since 2019.
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In 2022 they launched their online Culinary Medicine course for health professionals to complement their in-person teaching sessions at the central London teaching kitchen and have developed a health and wellbeing programme to support NHS staff.
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In April 2023 a further 3 year commitment of £40,000 pa was made to continue CMUK’s work with health professionals.
The Food Foundation focuses on changing food policy and business practices to help ensure everyone in the UK can afford a healthy and sustainable diet. AIM has provided a grant of £25,000 to the Food Foundation in 2021 for an in-depth study on early years food and nutrition and how it may contribute to high levels of overweight and obesity in early childhood. The focus is on breast feeding and nutritional value of baby foods
School Food Matters teaches children about food and aims to improve school children’s access to healthy and sustainable food.
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AIM originally funded their project, Young Marketeers, which gave children the opportunity to experience the joy of growing fresh fruit and vegetables and developing their skills by selling their produce at the London Borough Market.
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In addition, the funding contributed to the pilot programme of improving the food offer in breakfast and after school clubs, as well as helping schools to develop and implement school food policies that put children’s health first.
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In January 2023 a further grant commitment of £100,000 over two years was approved to scale up this programme from 3 to 8 schools in Tower Hamlets, applying learning form the pilot phase and greatly extending their impact.
Sustain is an alliance of organisations and communities working together for better food, farming, and fishing. They advocate for food and agriculture policies and practices that have the health and welfare of people and animals at their centre.
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In 2021 AIM awarded a grant of £25,000 to support putting pressure on the government to introduce universal free school meals and campaigning for healthy school meals. Sustain has gathered evidence for the benefits of universal free school meals and is working with key partners (#Feedthe Future campaign, Soil Association). They have raised the profile of this issue but not yet swayed the government.
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In January 2023 AIM continued to support their campaigning work with a grant commitment of £94,998 over 3 years.
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First State Nutrition Trust was founded in 2011 in response to concerns around a pervasive shortage of evidence-based, independent information and resources on eating well in pregnancy and the early years. Their vision is a UK where all young children eat well from the start of life.
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​First Steps’s play a unique role in the UK early years food/nutrition landscape, working closely with many of NWF's other grant holders to support good nutrition from conception to age five.
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​In March 2024 the NWF Trustees awarded First Steps a three year core funding grant of £120,000 to support their practical and policy work.