Consumer Action 2006

The things we buy in the shops, the services we use whether in a hospital or a school are central to our lives. This award is for campaigners who are fighting to get a fair deal for all.

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Winner

Jackie Schneider

Merton Parents for Better Food in Schools

Jackie is a teacher but campaigns as a parent in her local borough of Merton, South London. She is campaigning to persuade her local council (and ultimately all local authorities) to provide healthy school meals. She wants to ensure that parents, health professionals and governors are involved in decisions about school meal provision. Most of her successes to date have been in primary schools although the campaign has received acknowledgement from the Merton Council that all school meals need to be improved. Her campaign will focus on collection of evidence in relation to food diaries, photographs and governors' visits, to develop a strong case for use in council meetings.

Cabinet Office Minister, Ed Miliband MP, has praised Jackie Schneider's campaign. Speaking on 29th November 2006:

"Earlier this month, when I attended the launch of the Sheila McKechnie Awards for campaigning, I met a woman called Jackie Schneider.

Jackie Schneider is a parent and teacher in Merton, South London, and she decided her children's school meals were not good enough. So she started a petition, and collected 3,000 signatures. She asked fellow parents who else wanted to be involved, and was contacted by 150 parents who wanted to be active members.

She said: "I never realised I could make change happen - and it has made me braver about challenging other things."

So Jackie is now taking on a new campaign, to improve the way schools interact with children who have lost parents or loved ones.

This story illustrates to me:

The way campaigning can change the individual

The individual can mobilise a movement

And the movement can change policy. "

Finalists

Jason Addy 

Save Spodden Valley

Jason has a law degree but currently campaigns full-time on asbestos related issues in Rochdale. He aims to achieve a change in the law so that brownfield sites are properly investigated with regard to the risks of asbestos. He is specifically campaigning about the asbestosis risks in Spodden Valley near Rochdale. In May 2004 the asbestos factory site in Spodden Valley was sold to developers. Jason was concerned that the contractors were destroying the woodland around the factory site and he became a spokesperson to represent the community in challenging the development company.

Claire Milne 

The Food Poverty Project, Sustain

Claire has a background in international development, including three years working for the World Development Movement. Her campaign aims to persuade the Government to regulate supermarkets so that local independent retailers can return to the high street in order to promote healthy eating. She argues that the decline of local independent food retailers is a major contributory factor in the poor diet of many British households and that diet-related ill health costs the NHS ?6 billion per annum. Her ambition is to mobilise on a pan-European basis in order to lobby governments.