We all have the right to healthy food on our plates

WHEN I think back to my school days I think about the good food. Raised on orange juice and cod liver oil, and then the free school milk in the bottles that we defrosted on the classroom radiators to break the ice, we – our society – learnt from the rationing in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

Even in hard times, we never ever went without food. Seasonal food was always on the table and what’s more we knew how to grow it, buy it and cook it.

What our mums didn’t teach us our domestic science teachers like Mrs Sinclair did. And just in case there was any doubt, our school put a premium on food by serving lovingly cooked and served fresh food at dinner time. We were never hungry. The food on our plate mattered.

Fast forward fifty years and what have we done?

Over a decade ago I introduced a private member’s bill to the House of Commons calling on the Government to commit to minimal nutritional standards for all meals served in the public sector – whether it is schools, hospitals or prisons. My bill was rejected by the Coalition government and talked out by Jacob Rees-mogg.

In the intervening years though, the Government’s austerity measures have put added pressure on the quality and value for money of the food we eat, including school meals.

Access to a healthy diet is a basic determinant of who we are. So I was very encouraged by Henry Dimbleby’s report advocating a national food strategy and equally disappointed by the Government ruling out, as they did with my bill, a Food Bill that would have enshrined all his recommendations into law.

In this context, last Friday’s Stoke-ontrent Food Summit at Staffordshire University, opened by Henry Dimbleby, above, and hosted by Jo Gideon MP was welcome. It gave all those who attended food for thought about what needs doing if we are to make sure that food is nutritional, affordable and good for health, local jobs, and the climate.

I left that event to go straight to the AGM marking the 10year anniversary of the first Stoke-on-trent Food Bank. Outgoing chairman Keith Stubbs reminded me of the occasion 10 years ago when I cut the ribbon at Wesley Hall in Sneyd Green. Back then we hoped food banks would just have to be a temporary measure.

It was humbling to be among so many people who do their best to make sure people don’t go hungry. These volunteers, alongside numerous others, including the Hubb

Foundation, do so much to make us proud. That’s why we all have to ask ourselves what is being done to combat today’s food poverty and why we have to step up the pressure on MPS and Government to back measures to make sure no one goes hungry.

Last year it was only the intervention of footballer Marcus Rashford, below, which shamed the Government into a U-turn with his insistence on vouchers so children of hard-pressed families did not go hungry in the holidays. Now we learn austerity measures mean many councils have ceased this support.

With Liz Truss’s government having trashed the economy and families facing an 11.6 % increase in food prices alongside the other cost of living pressures it is clear that urgent action is needed on food.

We could make a start calling on the Government to do two things. Extend free school meals to all, and introduce a Food Bill to set out nutritional standards.

In an economy like ours we should not tolerate any of our neighbours, families, friends and workmates living in despair because they don’t know where the next meal is coming from.

When it comes to nutrition and hunger we urgently need Government action.