Soil Association sends open letter to new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
26 Oct 2022
The Soil Association has written an open letter to new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling on him to wake up to the connection between hunger and diet-related poor health.
Chief executive Helen Browning called on Sunak to support the Soil Association’s vision of a future where everyone has access to an affordable, healthy and nutritious diet, underpinned by a resilient and sustainable food system.
The Soil Association is calling on the Prime Minister to:
- Immediately implement universal free school meals for all Key Stage Two children across England.
- Immediately increase funding for school meals so that caterers are not forced to cut standards with ingredients that undercut British farmers, as part of a wider package of reforms to school food policy.
- Commit the hundreds of millions spent on school food to be spent on British, sustainable farm produce, with the revised buying standards introduced at the earliest opportunity.
- Commit to continuing the rollout and development of the Environmental Land Management Schemes and Sustainable Farming Incentives with funding for protecting soils and a farmer-led tree revolution
- Work with the Soil Association’s Food for Life scheme to roll out a “whole-school approach” to food that promotes healthy, sustainable food, and food education from an early age.
If you would like to access the full letter, visit here.