Serving a sweet dish at the House of Commons

Oct 17th, 2012 5:41 PM UTC
By Saira O'Mallie

This job certainly throws up a few unexpected opportunities, but turning my hand to pop-up restaurant organiser has to be the biggest challenge yet.

I had to get permission from four different offices, find talented chefs to give up their time, recruit volunteers to help man the stand and get the whole thing set up, running and dismantled again in about 5 hours. Phew!

But we couldn’t let World Food Day pass without a bit of a celebration, and it was a great opportunity to engage the public and MPs with our work on nutrition, particularly the humble (and delicious) sweet potato.

ONE’s Saira O’Mallie with David Miliband MP

If you’ve missed it, here’s why it’s important:

• Malnutrition causes one out of every three child deaths – more than 2.4 million – every year
• More than 600,000 children die each year from vitamin A deficiency
• The humble, orange fleshed, vitamin A rich sweet potato – along with other key interventions and investments – has the potential to save the lives of 300 children every single day

Being just across the road from the House of Commons it was easy for MPs to pop across and say hi, and while they tucked into sweet potato cakes and soup we told them more about the campaign. Many wished that our pop-up food van would become a regular feature!

In fact, as I packed up I chatted to a policeman who asked if we’d be coming back every day. Not sure my nerves could take it! But hopefully we’ll be back on World Food Day 2013.

TAGS: Agriculture, Food, Food security, ONE Members, Thrive, UK