By Maya Shah
Happy New Year and welcome back to Amnesty society!
This term we are focusing on the ‘Right to Food’ campaign. Food poverty is an extremely prevalent issue, exacerbated by the cost of living crisis. The Unite union reported that 11 million people in the UK are living in food poverty. This is an issue in Leeds, as nearly 42,000 people accessed food banks or parcels from 2021 to 2022. Despite this, the British government has not incorporated the right to food into national law. They claim to recognise the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural rights, which declares the right to food, but this is not required to be implemented into domestic law. Sufficient, healthy food is clearly a basic human right that should be protected by law.
Because of this, our goal by the end of the term is to make Leeds a ‘Right to Food’ city. Committing to the ‘Right to Food’ means enshrining the government’s duty to provide food for all. By the city council signing this, they are calling on the national government to include the right to food in their National Strategy. Many cities, including Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool are ‘Right to Food’ cities, so it is definitely a possibility for Leeds to become one.
In our first meeting back this term our society members came up with some great ideas for our roadmap to achieve this goal. They thought of putting leaflets about our campaign under food trays at the university, educating students (especially in student accommodation) how to recycle properly, and even suggested getting a celebrity from Leeds to support our cause.
We are initially focused on raising awareness of this issue and educating others, then contacting the right people to gain support - MPs and the Leeds city council. We then will escalate further into potential demonstrations and actions on campus, such as establishing food drives. These actions will hopefully culminate in Leeds becoming a ‘Right to Food’ city and in the historic climate protest in April in London.
Within this aim of the right to food, we are also looking at broader environmental issues within Leeds University. The university pledged in 2018 to be single-use plastic free by 2023. We want an update from them to see how much progress has been made to achieving this goal. Even if it has not been met, transparency and accountability are necessary. We also hope to collaborate with other university societies, like Green Action and HOMED, to further strengthen our campaign.
Each week our meetings will be working towards this final goal, so we hope you all come along to build momentum, as with activism there is strength in numbers. If you have any insight or ideas for our campaign, we would love to hear them! The blog can also be a great platform to write about this issue, or share sustainable tips or simple nice recipes.
We are really excited for the rest of the term and hope you are too :)
For more information on:
The ‘Right to Food’ Campaign: https://www.ianbyrne.org/righttofood
Leeds Uni’s single-use plastic free pledge: https://sustainability.leeds.ac.uk/plastic-pledge/