Food for Life Partnership

• Food, Inc
• Silver Schools
• Films made by schools
• One Planet Food film
• Crop to Crumble film

Food, Inc and the Food for Life Partnership

In the new film 'Food, Inc' film maker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on the food industry, exposing how our food supply is controlled by a handful of multi-national corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health and the environment.

Robert Kenner and food expert and writer Eric Schlosser, who is interviewed in the film, went to visit St John the Baptist School - a Food for Life Partnership Flagship school in London.

Eric Schlosser comments:

"People have forgotten where their food comes from. There are many important ways in which these problems need to be addressed but I think perhaps the most important way is through schools and through programmes like the Food for Life Partnership.

Eating habits are formed very young and it’s absolutely essential that we prevent our children from developing poor eating habits that lead to poor health.

The Food for Life Partnership is exactly the sort of change that we need – It’s immediate, it’s concrete and for a relatively small investment it can have profound long-term impact for the better."

Watch our short film:

More about Food, Inc
We have bigger breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad - but we also have new strains of E. coli the harmful bacteria that causes illness, we are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

The film features interviews with experts such as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg. Food, Inc. reveals surprising and often shocking truths about what we eat, how it's produced and where we are going from here.

Food, Inc. is released on Friday 12 February 2010, with a special day of one-off nationwide cinema screenings on Monday 15 February.
Visit the website for more information

What can schools do?
Schools and their communities can play a huge role in creating a sustainable food future in this country:

• Serving school dinners that are made from local, organic and seasonal ingredients helps to create a market and infrastructure for climate-friendly produce.
• Teaching the next generation, through regular farm visits, about where food comes from and the impact it has on human health and the health of the planet will make them discerning consumers when they grow up.
• Teaching the skills to grow and cook food will give future generations the opportunity to feed themselves and their families a healthy and low-carbon diet.

All this sounds like grand ideas, but what is so amazing about the Food for Life Partnership is that the schools, caterers, farmers and communities involved are actually doing this every day. We work with 1,600 schools now, with new schools joining every day, supporting them in setting up organic school gardens, cooking clubs, farm visits and putting healthy and tasty food on the school dinner menu.

The Food for Life Partnership is a network of schools and communities across England committed to transforming food culture. Together we will revolutionise schools meals, reconnect young people with farms and inspire families to cook and grow food.

The initiative is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and led by the Soil Association, bringing together the practical expertise of the Focus on Food Campaign, Garden Organic and the Health Education Trust.