Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
TALKING POLITICS People have a Right to Food
Across North Lanarkshire, children are now back at school after their summer holidays.
While this can be a time of enjoyment for many kids and families, the holidays can bring additional pressure on parents already struggling to make ends meet, who face greater expense in providing food for their children.
Thanks to the innovative Club 365 program implemented by Labour in North Lanarkshire, parents in our region have had greater support than before. For many parents and carers across Scotland, however, this is not the case.
More than 70 charities, academics and trade unions recently signed a letter from the Scottish Food Coalition to the First Minister; the letter outlined the “deeprooted problems” in our food system, and called on the Scottish Government to take action by bringing forward the Good Food Nation Bill and enshrining the Human Right to Food into law in Scotland, with Hilal Elver, UN special rapporteur on the Right to Food, one of the signatories.
The Scottish Food Coalition has also lodged a public petition in the Scottish Parliament calling for the Right to Food to be part of Scots law; and I urge everyone to sign it by August 22.
The letter points out that food insecurity is “unacceptably high” in Scotland. As we know locally, food bank usage continues to rise and inequality in childhood obesity is increasing. In a wealthy country like Scotland, with strong farming and agricultural sectors, these problems cannot be allowed to continue.
As I have argued before, families going hungry today cannot wait for the next parliament or the next government; they need action now. With nearly 21 per cent of children in North Lanarkshire living in low-income households, Labour’s Club 365 initiative provides free meals and activities for qualifying children during school holidays and is now extended to weekends. A future Labour Government is committed to rolling out this pioneering program across Scotland.
However, this is another example of Labour councils being forced to pick up the pieces and deliver innovative solutions when the government won’t.
The proposed Good Food Nation Bill was an opportunity for the Scottish Government to act but, disappointingly, their proposal failed to include incorporation of the Right to Food as part of the bill. The government has spoken about their desire to strengthen human rights in Scotland; but the SNP has been in power for 12 years and there has been limited progress in this area.
The need for a Right to Food is urgent, and I join those who have already signed the letter to the First Minister in calling for the SNP to bring forward their Good Food Nation Bill and enshrine the Right to Food into law by the end of this parliament.
I hope that Nicola Sturgeon will listen to their demands; this should be in the SNP’s program for government immediately after recess.
If the SNP will not act urgently to bring forward legislation guaranteeing the Right to Food, then Labour will.