National Food Strategy ‘a missed opportunity to end food poverty’, say Right To Food campaigners

The Right To Food campaign has described the National Food Strategy (https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/) published today as “a missed opportunity” to end the plight of the ten million people living in food poverty in the UK.

Led by Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne with support from national fan activist network Fans Supporting Foodbanks, the campaign launched in November 2020 with the aim of changing the law to make access to food a legal right for all.

Following several months of campaigning in Parliament and in communities across the country, the Right To Food campaign last month wrote to Henry Dimbleby, chair of the National Food Strategy, ahead of its report to Government today, urging him to include a Right To Food in its findings.

The campaign also made a formal submission to the National Food Strategy review in March 2021. This included five key ‘asks’ of Government which the campaign believed, if adopted, would provide an achievable, tangible and legally binding route out of food poverty for millions of people in the UK. These are: universal free school meals; community kitchens; reasonable portions in benefits and wages; ensured food security and independent enforcement. You can read the Right To Food submission in full here: https://www.ianbyrne.org/right-to-food

Responding to today’s National Food Strategy publication, Right To Food campaign founder Ian Byrne MP said:
“We of course welcome findings such as the increased eligibility of 1.1 million children for free school meals – this is a step in the right direction, and we recognise measures like this as an acknowledgement of our campaign and as a small step in tackling the evils of food poverty in the UK. However, accepting the analysis of the Right To Food without meeting its political ambition is not enough and I cannot help but be disappointed at the lack of ambition of the National Food Strategy recommendations to bring about systemic change in the UK.

“Ten million people in the UK can’t put food on the table – they won’t feel this review speaks for them or helps them. We needed ambition and radicalism and we have not got that in this review. It is certainly a missed opportunity to enshrine the Right To Food into legislation and help to bring ten million people out of food poverty.”

Chair of national activist network Fans Supporting Foodbanks, Dave Kelly, said:
“I am disappointed in the National Food Strategy report and think it is weak on inequality – this section of the report did not even mention foodbanks. We wanted and needed a legally binding Right to Food for all, but we got Andrew Marr extolling the virtues of the free market!”

Shami Chakrabarti, a key supporter of the Right To Food who helped to write the campaign submission to the National Food Strategy, said:
“These recommendations duck both the need for universal free school meals and a duty on Government to state how much of minimum wages or benefits it has apportioned for food. These were just two of our key asks in our submission to the National Food Strategy. There are perfectly credible ideas in the Report but nothing resembling a Right to Food. This is a wasted opportunity.”

On the campaign’s future efforts, MP Byrne said:
“The Right To Food campaign will continue to go from strength to strength and we will continue to fight for a legal right to food for the millions of people currently living in food poverty in the UK.

“We will not stop in our efforts to secure the Right To Food for all and to lift millions out of the misery of systemic food poverty.”

The campaign has achieved considerable support in the last six months. The Right To Food campaign petition to Parliament gathered more than 53,000 signatures before it closed and the campaign has received support from the Daily Mirror, Liverpool FC, Everton FC, The Big Issue, trade unions, charities, faith leaders, businesses and members of the public.

More than twenty towns and cities also voted to formally support the campaign and to declare themselves a Right To Food city/town and have written to Henry Dimbleby to ask for Right To Food legislation to be included in the National Food Strategy report to Government. These include Liverpool, Manchester, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Liverpool Combined Authority, Rotherham, Totnes, Brighton and Hove, Haringey, St Helens, Newcastle, Portsmouth and Durham.

Last month the Right To Food campaign held a successful national #RightToFood day on social media to raise awareness of the campaign and to focus on why a Right To Food is needed ahead of today’s publication of the National Food Strategy report to Government. https://www.ianbyrne.org/right-to-food