Sainsbury's has announced it will be the first supermarket to reintroduce a £3 weekly top-up for customers on the NHS Healthy Start scheme, offering eligible low-income families up to £18 to spend on healthy food over a six-week period.
The offer will run for six weeks from November 18. Sainsbury's customers from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland will receive a £3 eGift card to spend in store or online on fruit, vegetables, beans and pulses, as well as fresh, frozen, tinned and dried products each week.
Eligibility and Application
The money is available to families enrolled in the NHS Healthy Start scheme, which provides support to help pregnant individuals and low-income families with children buy healthy food. To qualify for the Sainsbury's support, customers must have used both the NHS Healthy Start Mastercard, which is topped up every four weeks, and a Nectar card in the same transaction within the last year.
Eligible customers must apply by 11.59pm on Monday, November 9. They will then receive a £3 eGift card by email each week for six weeks from Wednesday, November 18.
Impact on Shopping Habits
Sainsbury's said: "NHS Healthy Start is a government scheme that supports low-income families with young children across the UK to buy more healthy food through a free prepaid Healthy Start card that is automatically topped up with money every four weeks."
Sainsbury's trialled a top-up to Healthy Start in 2021 - before the scheme transitioned to a prepaid card format – and saw a significant impact on shopping habits. Analysis by Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, in partnership with IGD, revealed that Sainsbury's customers redeeming a top-up coupon purchased an average of 13 more portions of fruit and vegetables per basket compared to those that didn't.
Broader Health Initiative
The move is part of Sainsbury's plan to add thousands of tonnes of fibre and millions more portions of fruit and vegetables to UK diets. The supermarket also launched new Full on Fibre labelling across its products and continues to try and offer affordable pricing.
Nilani Srithran, Sainsbury's head of healthy and sustainable diets, 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, with our previous top-up trial helping customers buy an average of 13 more portions of fruit and veg per basket.
"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. I'd encourage everyone on the Healthy Start scheme to find out more."
Dame Diana Johnson, Minister of State for Public Health and Patient Safety, said: "Every child deserves the best possible start in life. That's exactly why Healthy Start matters so much to this government, helping families to put healthy food on the table. I'm delighted to see Sainsbury's bring back this additional support and I encourage other retailers to follow their lead so even more families can benefit."
Anna Taylor, executive director at 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."
