Informed 11 Update ‘Hunger is a trade union issue’


Awil Mohamoud, campaigns and communications officer, provides an update on the Right To Food campaign. In April, the Right to Food UK Commission held a meeting to discuss how trade unionists and campaigners can support the movement to end food poverty. Food banks distributed more than 2.6


million emergency food parcels across the UK in 2025, according to Trussell Trust figures. “Food poverty is a blight on British society,” said Sarah Woolley, Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) general secretary, with food banks now being accepted as a normal part of everyday life in one of the richest countries in the world. Almost a third (30%) of people accessing food banks are in working households. Woolley said: “Hunger is a trade union issue, to the extent that poverty is the effect of endemic low pay, casualisation, zero hours contracts, and a culture of bogus self-employment. We know that strong union and workplace rights are needed to turn the tide.” A motion was passed at the last NUJ Delegate Meeting in April 2025 calling for the NEC to join fellow unions in promoting and supporting the campaign for the right to food to be enshrined in law. Two months later, the union formally supported the Right to Food


A record 4.5 million children are living


in poverty in the UK. Daniel Kebede, National Education Union (NEU) general secretary, welcomed the progress made by the government in extending access to free school meals in England and removing the two-child benefit cap. However, there is still so much more to do. “We know that the number one thing that determines your atainment in education as a child is how much your parents earn. When the government talks about equity and all children being able to thrive, it has to recognise the need to deal with the child poverty crisis.” Gawain Litle, General Federation of


campaign, urging the government to end hunger.


Speaking at the meeting, Ian Byrne MP, vice chair of the commission, said the objective is to shine a light on the scandal of food insecurity, offer solutions, and apply real pressure on the UK government and devolved nations to act. Over the coming months, Byrne will create a roadmap on how to enshrine a legal right of food in the UK, with a clear mission to halve food insecurity by 2030 and end hunger by 2035. “It’s ambitious, but achievable because hunger is a political choice, and if you have the political will, you can tackle it,” he added.


Trade Unions (GFTU) general secretary, said the fundamental issue is a mismatch between wages and the price of food. Structural changes are needed to address this. “Redistribution of wealth through the tax and benefit system is absolutely necessary,” said Litle. “We need to look at caps on the price of food and subsidies for essential items. We need to rebuild our economy, which means reindustrialisation. Tat needs to go hand in hand with food security so that we’re less dependent on imported foods, and as part of that, reintroducing an Agricultural Wages Board so that we’re paying decent wages to the workers who produce our food.”


First UK memorial for fallen journalists


Te National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire will host the UK’s first national monument to journalists killed while reporting from conflict. In 2024 the On the Record campaign


group formed to create a permanent space for remembering fallen British and UK based journalists and educating visitors about the dangers reporters in conflict zones face in pursuit of truth.


In April, artist Wolfgang Butress


won the competition to design the memorial with his proposal ‘End of Copy, Words of Light’. Te design features tall aluminium columns arranged in a Fibonacci spiral, symbolising rays of light. It was unveiled by Chris Elmore, UK minister for human rights, at an event hosted by Bloomberg and atended by representatives from media outlets,


various journalists’ organisations, and the NUJ. On the Record is on its way to raising £1m to create the striking and enduring structure. An additional £50,000 sculpture will be installed at St Bride’s Church on Fleet Street in London. An online database will also be made to commemorate fallen journalists, telling their stories and preserving their legacies.


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