London Assembly Member Jenny Jones today applauded the campaign and the enthusiasm of the thousands of Londoners who have done their bit in cleaning up litter and improving their local areas. However Jenny has condemned the Mayor of London for his ongoing sponsorship deal with McDonalds (the fast food outlet associated with highly processed, high fat, high sugar and unhealthy foods) to help fund this Mayoral ‘Capital Clean Up’ volunteering programme, contributing £50k each year until 2016/17 (2).
Earlier in the week the British Medical Association (BMA) in their bid to tackle childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes called for regulations to prohibit the marketing of unhealthy food and drink products to children and young people (3).
Jenny Jones AM said:
“Capital Clean-up is a fantastic volunteering programme, which involves young people cleaning up their local areas. However it is completely inappropriate for Boris Johnson who has public health responsibilities to give this junk food giant his Mayoral endorsement and an enormous marketing platform”
“For years we have heard the repeated warnings from medical professionals about the growing childhood obesity and diabetes crisis that is threatening to shorten lives and overwhelm public health services. Unlike the current Mayor, his successor must make this a top priority and curb the influence of the junk food and drink industry. A first step would be to drop McDonalds from GLA sponsorship.”
Editors Notes
Jenny is available for interview
(1) /media/mayor-press-releases/2015/07/mayor-rolls-up-sleeves-to-kick-start-london-s-biggest-ever
(2) Mayor’s decision, Capital Clean up-programme
/sites/default/files/MD1223%20McDonalds%20Capital%20Cleanup%20PDF.pdf
(3) ‘Food for thought: Getting the recipe right’ BMA report, published 14th July 2015
http://bma.org.uk/working-for-change/improving-and-protecting-health/food-for-thought
http://bma.org.uk/news-views-analysis/news/2015/july/food-for-thought-getting-the-recipe-right
(4) http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jenny-jones-am/call-to-end-junk-food-fr…