Lib-Dem food plan put firmly on menu

LOCAL Lib-Dems are calling for cross-party support for their plan to make sure no child goes to school hungry.

Councillor Howard Sykes says the Oldham Education and Skills Commission needs to examine issues concerning food poverty, as hunger can affect children’s classroom performance.

Oldham has around 24,700 residents in food poverty, and 4,600 use the local food bank network.

The Lib-Dems have written to Prime Minister David Cameron outlining a national plan to address food poverty, but are also calling for a unified response by all Oldham’s councillors.

Councillor Sykes said: “One of the greatest inequalities we must address in Oldham is the inability to access an adequate diet. Yet the final report of the Oldham Education and Skills Commission makes no mention of food poverty, which hasn’t featured sufficiently highly in the local policy agenda. We are determined as local leaders to ensure that it does so.

The party wants the council to establish a food poverty commission, to bring together groups working on food poverty issues, to establish a strategy and a local action plan.

twitter: @DawnMarsdenOC