The supporter network

The BSLM strongly support research into the role of public diners. We need to urgently act on the root drivers of ill health and avoid medicating the effects of poor quality food. Public diners could be a powerful way to support local producers, bring communities together and provide healthy whole food – a triple whammy impact.

Public Diners can provide positive benefits in terms of health, local economic support and sustainability outcomes. They are a really excited food systems intervention!

The Community Carrot supports the campaign to establish Public Diners because we share the same mission to ensure everyone has access to healthy, affordable food. We believe in strengthening local food systems and promoting social inclusion, and Public Diners would contribute to both those ambitions.

Edinburgh Food Social supports public diners because we believe everyone deserves access to nourishing food in a welcoming, stigma-free environment. These spaces not only strengthen community ties but also create fair jobs and support local producers—laying the groundwork for a healthier, more just food system.

Public diners have enormous potential to reduce dietary and social inequalities through providing universal access to good food in social settings. They crucially shift the responsibility of healthy, sustainable and ethical food work from the individual to the public, benefitting producers, consumers and wider society.

Food Sense Wales aims to influence and impact on how food is produced and consumed in Wales, ensuring that sustainable food, farming and fisheries are at the heart of a just, connected and prosperous food system. We believe that the model of public diners is one important way to realise this mission.

At the Institute for Global Prosperity we believe that experimentation is vital to develop new foundations for a social security system fit for the 21st century. Piloting new initiatives like Nourish Scotland’s public diners is a valuable contribution to building the research evidence needed to support a stable platform from which lives can thrive holistically.

Public diners have enormous potential to reduce dietary and social inequalities through providing universal access to good food in social settings. They crucially shift the responsibility of healthy, sustainable and ethical food work from the individual to the public, benefitting producers, consumers and wider society.

The nutritional challenges facing us as a society are very different to those that our founder John Boyd Orr and his colleagues tackled head on in the 1930s – but this interesting debate about whether reviving an idea from that era could prove a winner again in our times is one we are happy to help stimulate. The first time around, this fascinating scheme did not just provide a nutritious meal at a reasonable price during the war-time rationing but also helped build community, bringing together people from all walks of life.

Scotland The Bread supports the Public Diners campaign for its potential to strengthen supply chains between local farms and communities, ensuring access to nutritious, responsibly-sourced food. State-subsidised restaurants could be a vital link in the chain for making Real Bread accessible for all—made with integrity, not additives—while supporting local grain growers and bakers. Public Diners would also create valuable spaces for positive social interaction, a democratic gathering space centred around nourishing, affordable meals.

Scottish Community Alliance support public diner infrastructure as a practical policy solution that enables communities to access nutritious, locally sourced food as a human right.

Scottish Communities Climate Action Network (SCCAN) supports Nourish Scotland’s Public Diners campaign because access to healthy, affordable food is essential for resilient, low-carbon communities. Just like libraries and parks, public diners would be vital shared spaces – supporting current and future generations with a fairer, more sustainable food system.

Soil Association Scotland believes the public sector should be a beacon of good food – serving food that’s good for our health, our environment and our local economy. Public diners can be part of this vision, serving environmentally friendly, high welfare food to people in all walks of life.

We support Nourish Scotland’s public diners, they offer the potential to have a positive, lasting impact on the lives of people in Dundee. They would offer everyone, regardless of age or background the opportunity to easily access local, healthy, affordable food in an inclusive, welcoming environment.

We’re really excited that this new conversation is starting about public diners. Too often politicians seem to believe that the state can’t do anything at all. This initiative shows just how misguided that is.

Public ownership isn’t just for the classic natural monopolies and assets like water, energy and rail. Public diners are also vital infrastructure, delivering good food directly, making people’s lives better and communities healthier. We’ve done it before and we can do it again!

The Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) sees that Public Diners offer an opportunity to promote affordable, healthy, and culturally appropriate meals. By embedding values of sustainability into communal food provisioning, public diners can help shift away from individualised, market-driven models of healthy eating toward systemic solutions that prioritise wellbeing, climate resilience, and food justice. They also provide a tangible platform for engaging women as agents of change in shaping inclusive, low-carbon food futures.