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PhunkyFoods:  A Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Success Story

"Their foresight and trail blazing provides a leading example of contemporary Public Health strategy in action. Purely Nutrition has and continues to model new ways of working in partnership with commercial sponsors which may act as an exemplar for 'Big Society' engagement."

- Royal Society of Public Health, 2011

With global and national non-communicable disease (NCD) rates rising rapidly, alongside a poor global economy resulting in austerity measures and stretched national budgets, the issue of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Public Health has never been more relevant. PPPs aim to unite representatives from civil society, the corporate sector, NGOs and institutions in a common goal; to add shared value to a project that will ultimately lead to benefits for both society and to the corporations involved. Multi-stakeholder approaches are widely recognised to be necessary in order to tackle obesity epidemics on a large scale [1] [2]. Public-private collaborations are also considered to be more likely to increase the scope of financial and human resources that could be mobilised to serve public health programmes’ objectives [3].

At PhunkyFoods we believe in offering schools a sustainable solution to delivering credible and reliable healthy eating and physical activity messages to children in the classroom. In order to achieve this in a cost-effective manner for schools we approach companies to subsidise the cost of our programme via their Corporate Responsibility (CR) and/or ESG budgets.

Our private partners also work hard to give PhunkyFoods a powerful voice to help us lobby government on behalf of schools to kick-start additional funding streams which they can utilise to invest in vital healthy lifestyles programmes.

In the case of the PhunkyFoods Programme our PPPs include public funding and support (at national and local level), as well as corporate sponsorship, and has demonstrated innovation and sustainability after almost 20 years of running. The successes of the PPPs we have forged over the past 20 years have been formally recognised through awards from national organisations such as Business in the Community (BITC) and the Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH).

PhunkyFood's guidelines on partnership working

Our relationship with our private partners is governed by a long-term commitment that guarantees mutual respect and trust for each party. Any private partner must accept and commit to the following conditions:

  1. Never associate the programme with their products.
  2. Never influence the content of the programme.
  3. Only communicate on the programme in internal or corporate communications.

[1] Commission of the European Communities (2007). White Paper on A Strategy for Europe on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity related health issues. Brussels. May 30th 2007.
[2] World Health Organisation (2007). The Challenge of obesity in the WHO European Region and the strategies for responses.
[3] Sassi F (2010). Obesity and the Economics of prevention. Fit not Fat. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The PhunkyFoods Consortium

Nestlé Healthy Kids Programme

nestle-healthy-kidsNestlé is the world's largest food and beverage manufacturer with a vision of becoming the world's leader in nutrition, health and wellness. With 140 years of food and nutrition research, we are committed to helping our consumers make healthy lifestyle choices. It is important that we help people make healthier choices - by constantly improving the nutritional content of our products, and by supporting improved education about healthy eating.

Nestlé has supported PhunkyFoods since 2007. Nestlé UK funds schools as part of our company’s global Healthy Kids initiative, which is designed to raise nutrition, health and wellness awareness of school-age children around the world. Nestlé runs Healthy Kids schemes in over 60 countries world-wide, working in partnership with NGOs, government and nutritionists to tackle health challenges such as obesity.

In the UK specifically:

  • Nestlé UK sponsor 341 primary schools to receive the PhunkyFoods Programme for free across the UK.
  • All 341 schools are based around Nestlé factory sites and are offered as part of their employee and community engagement programmes.
  • Nestlé UK also fund a PhunkyFoods EDC (engagement and development co-ordinator) post in each locality to support these schools.
  • Nestlé UK have funded independent scientific research, in partnership with Leeds Beckett University, to evaluate the impact of the PhunkyFoods Programme in schools.

Sellafield Ltd.

At Sellafield Ltd, we are proud to have a social impact programme, known as SiX – social impact, multiplied, which goes well beyond sticking plaster solutions and really supports our communities to address social issues sustainably at root cause.

We know that childhood obesity levels in West Cumbria are alarmingly amongst the highest in the entire country so we have partnered with the local authority and PhunkyFoods for almost 5 years to make sure that all the schools and early years settings in the area have free access to the training, support and resources they need to support students and their families in adapting to healthier lifestyles from an early age.

The feedback we receive from the schools shows us that the programme is making a real difference in shifting the dial.  School staff are reporting that they feel better equipped and more confident to promote healthy lifestyles to their students within their curriculum and the students are telling us they now know how to make healthier lifestyle changes.  This is further backed up by the schools staff who can see the impact through real evidence such as healthier changes in students packed lunches, increased participation in PE / sports clubs and eating healthier at home too.