Free healthy start card to buy food

You can use your Healthy Start Card to buy:

• Plain fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Infant formula
• Pulses (dried or tinned)

You can also get free vitamins from Newham Council – including folic acid, vitamin C, and vitamin D. You can visit the Healthy Start Vitamins page for more information.

You can use your Healthy Start Card to buy:

• Plain fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Infant formula
• Pulses (dried or tinned)

You can also get free vitamins from Newham Council – including folic acid, vitamin C, and vitamin D. You can visit the Healthy Start Vitamins page for more information.

If you are eligible, you’ll be sent a Healthy Start card with money on it that you can use in supermarkets and other grocery stores. Top up payments will be deposited into your Healthy Start card on a monthly basis.  You can check the balance each month at a cash machine point.

You can use your card in most places that sell mil, infant formula, fruit and vegetables. This includes:

• supermarkets
• convenience stores
• grocery stores
• drug stores and pharmacies
• markets
• dairy products stores
• new dealers and newsstands
• freezer and locker meat provisioners (such as butchers' shops)
• petrol stations.

They must display a Mastercard® symbol. The symbol is normally shown on the shop door or at the till. Ask an employee inside the shop if they take Mastercard if you’re unsure.

If you try and spend money elsewhere, the card will be declined. For example, you cannot use your card at a fast-food restaurant.

The Healthy Start Card is a prepaid card given to eligible families. It’s topped up every 4 weeks and can be used to buy healthy food, milk, and infant formula.

Depending on your circumstances, you could get:

• £4.25 per week if you’re pregnant (from 10 weeks)
• £8.50 per week for each baby under 1
• £4.25 per week for each child aged 1 to 4

This adds up to as much as £280 a year per child

• Cow’s milk
• Infant formula
• Fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables
• Pulses (like lentils, beans, chickpeas)

It can only be used in stores that accept Mastercard and sell these items.

No, the Healthy Start Card must be used in person at shops that accept Mastercard and sell eligible food items.

No. If you remain eligible, your payments will continue automatically until your child turns 4. You must tell the NHS if your circumstances change.

Call the Healthy Start helpline immediately:
Phone: 0300 330 7010 (Monday to Friday, 8am–6pm)

Yes! You can collect free Healthy Start vitamins from local Children’s Centres and Maternity team within Newham University Hospital. 

Ask your midwife or health visitor for more info.