At the end of August, Magic Breakfast attended the SNP conference in Edinburgh.
We yearn for a world defined by love and compassion, where human rights and the rule of law are not just respected – but celebrated.”
These were the words of John Swinney as he began his speech to party members, observers, and the assembled media on the final day of the Scottish National Party Conference in the Lennox Suite of Edinburgh’s International Conference Centre EICC.
This speech, Swinney’s first as party leader and First Minister was the final major set piece of this years first major party conference of the autumn season. The conference, in the closing days of August, will be followed by the Liberal Democrats this coming weekend, the Labour Party the week after, and the Conservatives at the end of the month.
Party conferences are held every year by all the major political parties offering, among other elements, advocacy opportunities. It is this that brought the team from Magic Breakfast to Scotland’s capital. With school food policies devolved to the Scottish Government, currently formed by the SNP, it is the people in these halls who have the power to make change happen.
That’s why this year, Magic Breakfast’s third year at SNP conference, we joined with friends and colleagues at Barnardo’s Scotland to host a fringe event entitled Beyond the School Gates.
At our fringe event the panel was made up of Magic Breakfast’s Chief Executive Dr Lindsey MacDonald, Corrine Cunnigham and Kirsty-Louise Hunt of Barnardo’s Scotland, and Jenny Gilruth MSP the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills (the Scottish Government equivalent of the Secretary of State for Education), whilst I [Finlay Allmond, Scotland Policy & Public Affairs Manager at Magic Breakfast] chaired proceedings.
It was an amazing opportunity to have the Cabinet Secretary engage directly on the barriers that children and young people in Scotland face when accessing education. She acknowledged that current breakfast provision in Scotland is ‘patchy.’
Outside the fringe halls of the EICC Ochil room (all rooms in the building are named after hill ranges in Scotland) we also engaged directly with those floating around the exhibition hall and conference spaces.
This included our team speaking directly with both Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes MSP, and the First Minister himself John Swinney MSP. These opportunities are vital to building the long-term movement for change needed to deliver school breakfast provision in Scotland. This was alongside formal and private meetings with senior government advisors.
For those involved in advocacy work, party conferences are an exciting chance to step away from the desk. They give us opportunity to engage on the ground with those who hold the strings to the public purse and have the power to make change in all our lives.
From Edinburgh with the SNP to Brighton with the Liberal Democrats, Liverpool with the Labour Party, and Birmingham with the Conservatives, Magic Breakfast will be taking a simple message to parties on all sides of the political spectrum:
No child or young person should be too hungry to learn.
Finlay Allmond, Scotland Policy & Public Affairs Manager
