Soil Association

The Soil Association was founded in 1946 by a group of farmers, scientists and nutritionists who observed a direct connection between farming practice and plant, animal, human and environmental health. Today, we are the UK’s leading membership charity campaigning for healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use.

In the face of climate change and a growing world population, business as usual in our food and farming system is not an option. We want to ensure that organic systems can secure a durable and humane solution to the challenges facing us. We help provide solutions that help people to live, eat, farm and grow with the resources that are available. We want to pioneer new solutions to tackle climate change, support biodiversity, improve animal welfare and champion fairness. We believe that climate-friendly food is organically grown, minimally processed, fairly traded, fresh and seasonal. Good food should be a right, not a privilege: we want to make sureeveryone has access to food that is h ealthy for them and the planet. Our work in almost 1000 schools, through the Food for Life programme, shows that it is possible to transform food cultures for the better - improving the life and health chances of thousands of children through a comprehensive awards programme and teacher training scheme.

We are building on this work and helping other communities to build healthier food cultures. We represent and work with pioneering farmers, growers and businesses who deliver practical change – the extraordinary people who make change happen on the ground. We provide technical support and advice to farmers and businesses, and through our trading subsidiary, Soil Association Certification, we work to create and inspire consumer trust in order to support the organic market. We also work to improve consumer understanding of organic principles and to ensure that the vision, integrity and trust at the core of our certification process are understood by anyone purchasing a product that carries our symbol.

Food for Life (FFL) is a Soil Association initiative, founded in 2003, which has developed into an award-winning national programme to transform food culture http://www.foodforlife.org.uk/ FFL aims to make good food the easy choice for everyone, whoever and wherever they are. We have worked with over 5000 schools, early years, hospitals, workplaces, care homes, local authorities, and caterers providing support, training and resources to give people the practical skills and motivation to cook, grow food, and engage in good food culture. We have taken this work into communities with our Food for Life Get Togethers programme, which aims to bring communities together through activities related to food. Under-pinning all this work is a desire to promote and increase the consumption of sustainable and climate-friendly food through increased awareness and demand.

Our work in schools aims to ensure that children have access to healthy, sustainable food, and practical food education including cooking, growing food and understanding where food comes from. We provide a FFL School Awards Framework, training and support for schools to develop leadership around food, providing pupils, teachers and others a voice for decision making around food. We support schools to embed food education by providing training and resources for teachers on planning and leading cooking, food growing, and farm links lessons. This is part of a whole school approach to good food education, making clear links across all aspects of food education and the school meals provision. We support and train wider support staff and our trainers are experts on their subject areas. Our courses inspire and provide confidence, knowledge and skills for school educators to take forward and embed positive approaches within the school day to day activities.

We have been commissioned in over 40 Local Authorities throughout England to train teachers and educators in developing food projects in school. Over 1,000 schools in England have achieved a Food for Life Schools Award with many more engaged in the programme. Over 8,300 schools are now serving healthy meals that meet our Food for Life Served Here catering standards, an independent guarantee that food on the plate is fresh, traceable and free from undesirable additives. This includes 50% of English primary schools, eight Scottish authorities, and 75% of London Boroughs.