The Source

Soil Associations’ Food for Life and Love British Food join forces to amplify the need for British food to be accessible for all

Two leading food campaigning organisations have joined forces to champion the importance of buying British in public sector settings. Soil Association’s Food for Life and Love British Food will support each other’s mission for good food for all in the public sector, hospitality and beyond. [EB1] 

With a deep synergy between both organisations', together they will advocate for shorter, more sustainable supply chains to make British food a central part of schools, hospitals and other settings.

“We are delighted that Food for Life’s sustainable catering team has approached Love British Food proposing that we collaborate to further both our organisation’s activities.  I am excited in particular that Food for Life schools will now be invited to take part in British Food Fortnight, joining the hundreds of schools that already run special menus for children during the national food celebrations.”

Alexia Robinson, CEO, Love British Food

It’s a great time to join forces with Love British Food to amplify the work that both charities are doing to put more fresh, minimally processed, British food on the plates of the nation. We look forward to collaborating with each other to strengthen our combined calls for change across the food industry and support caterers and suppliers to access our homegrown produce.

Amit Dattani, Director of Healthy and Sustainable Diets, Soil Association

Notes to editors:

Food for Life – Founded in 2003 has been running for over 20 years to make good food accessible for all. A Soil Association programme working directly with caterers, schools, and communities to implement sustainable and lasting change within the broken food system.

Food for Life Served Here is the sustainable catering certification run by the Soil Association. It currently has certified caterers in over 6500 schools across the UK. 

Food for Life Schools Award empowers schools to build solutions that reach beyond the school canteen through the pioneering whole school approach. Focusing on system wide change and supporting people and communities to understand how to advocate for improved access to, and education around, good food.  Currently operating in over 600 schools in England. 

The Soil Association is a leading sustainable food and farming charity. Since 1946 the organisation has impacted millions of people, creating practical, nature-based solutions to recover climate, nature and health through sustainable and regenerative food, farming and forestry. Promoting the connection between people, food, and the natural world, lobbying government on key environmental policies, helping to serve millions of certified school meals and engaging thousands in farmer-led research. 

Love British Food 

Love British Food was founded by Alexia Robinson in 2002.  It is the leading voice promoting British food in communities around the country, working at grassroot and industry level. Its work focuses on creating a vibrant domestic market for British food that gives farmers and producers the confidence to invest and ensure our food security, enabling sustainable supply chains that make good food available for all. 

It is the organiser of British Food Fortnight, the national food celebration that reaches millions every autumn.  1,000s of shops, pubs, restaurants and communities, large and small, take part.   

Love British Food’s activities aim to make quality British food available to all sectors of society.  It is a uniquely trusted voice in the public sector, where Love British Food has become an established promotion in schools, universities, hospitals, care homes.  As part of this, it is the longest serving representative of the British food industry on the Public Sector Catering Alliance; working to ensure British food is the first supplier of choice.  It runs a national programme of farm visits for caterers, giving them a new appreciation of the value of British food to the supply chain.  To date it has hosted 193 NHS caterers on 9 farm visits.  And it facilitates working groups of public sector chefs providing the industry with a knowledge exchange platform.

It has a long association with the education sector having published the first guide to teaching food and cookery within the national curriculum: ‘Putting the Ooo back into Food’, endorsed by the Department of Health and Department for Education and Skills.  Distributed to 35,000 schools, this established British Food Fortnight as a core event on the school calendar.  Hundreds of teachers and school catering teams have taken part in the event over the years. 

Love British Food has a very active social media presence and a Love British Food farm to fork podcast. It launches a new series for chefs in 20245: Get Seasonal with Love British Food, aiming to help chefs buy British more easily through the wholesale sector.

Further information:

E: alexiarobinson@lovebritishfood.co.uk

W: www.lovebritishfood.co.uk