Plant-based school meals and council catering, are an essential part of the solution to the environmental and climate urgencies, because they consume less water and produce less greenhouse gases than meals with animal proteins, while being at least as nutritious.
As a Haringey Green Party Member, I think it is important to campaign on issues that can make a difference locally but also nationally and in early March of 2021 I joined a group of Haringey residents, all volunteers, to help start a campaign asking Haringey Council to move to plant based catering for all council events and to introduce plant based only meals in schools 2 times a week. ( This being the most you can ask for with schools national standards needing to include meat and dairy a number of times a week ). The campaign is supported by ProVeg, an organisation that works with local authorities and school caterers to increase the health and sustainability of school food through their school plates programme, and by the campaign group Plant Based Councils. Whilst we made some good connections with local councillors initially, by May that year the leadership team and cabinet of the council was changed and all the connections we made were lost.
However, fast forward to spring 2022 and I had made an application to present a deputation to council at the next full meeting that summer. Ironically, the meeting was cancelled due to the 40 degree heat we had in London that day. Since then I have met with Mike Hakata, Deputy Leader of the council and Cabinet Member for Climate Action, Environment and Transport and Zena Brabazon, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families, both have been enthusiastic about the idea and are working to introduce the change within Haringey.
Haringey Green Party have called on the council to make this change possible and are happy to work with them in any way we can. We hope to see this policy and others around food introduced in the councils climate change action plan, both directly in the introduction of plant based meals at all council events and in schools, which all local councillors could be working on within their local area but also indirectly in the promotion and education of a transition to a healthy and less carbon intensive diet.