WE STAND FOR THE RIGHT TO FOOD.
All of us have the right to healthy and affordable food.
Being able to eat regular, fresh and nutritious meals each day is fundamental
to our health and wellbeing.
Like others working in this area, we at Kent want to see a world where no one goes hungry, where we develop sustainable food sources for all, and where nutrition is accessible to everyone, wherever they are and whatever their means.
We have committed to become a Right to Food University.
In adopting this basic human right, we commit ourselves to promote food justice, tackle food poverty and transform our food system so that it operates to advance human health and an environmentally sustainable society.
Working in partnership with The Food Foundation, we will adopt measures to protect its students and staff from food insecurity. Our Canterbury and Medway campuses will be places where the right to food is realised in practice - in student kitchens, canteens, the university estate, the courses on offer and through research collaborations.
We will ensure that the food served on our campus supports
health, wellbeing and environmental sustainability. We will be devoted to using
food to create a caring university culture and to embed food issues within our
research and teaching.
More than this, we will track our progress carefully so that we learn as we go and tell our story to our region, the higher education sector and the rest of the world.
A commitment to realising the right to food entails a commitment to human wellbeing. It calls on us to learn together about how to build a strong and fair society and how to set this in practice. This will be our mission for Kent both as a place of learning and as a region committed to the care of its citizens and their futures.
We will deliver on our Right to Food commitment through our four missions:
Our commitment to the Right to Food goes to the very heart of what we believe a university is here to do
We want to use our strengths in research and innovation, the passion and commitment of our students and staff, and our deep links with our communities and our region to drive and inspire positive change. We are proud to be a Right to Food University and, in developing our approach and learning as we do so, to share that learning with others.”
Professor Karen Cox, Vice-Chancellor and President, University of Kent
The Right to Food launch was covered by a variety of national, sector and regional outlets, including the Sunday Times, BBC Online, BBC South East, BBC Breakfast News, KMTV, KMFM, Kent Online, along with various other regional broadcast and print outlets, focussing on the support systems in place at the university to help students during the cost-of-living crisis.
Higher education title, Wonkhe,
also ran an op-ed piece on the wider community and research-led aspects of
Right to Food, which detailed how universities are best positioned to tackle
food insecurity from their place within communities and academic expertise.
Our pioneering work also featured in TUCO Magazine, with a piece exploring our role as the UK's first Right to Food university. It details our dedication to promoting food justice, tackling food poverty, and creating a sustainable food system on both Canterbury and Medway campuses.
