Those selfless people who are now in prison have made an enormous impact in our fight for animal liberation. I think its important we give them as much support as we can so please copy and paste the following letter, filling in the relevent details where you see (.........), and send to your MP at House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA. You can find out who your local MP is by going to
www.vote4animals.org.uk/search.htm where you can also find details of other important issues to lobby your MP about.
Sample letter:
(...........name of your MP)
House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA
Re: Prison Shops Under the Aramark Contract
Dear (..........name of MP)
In 1996 the Vegan Prisoners Support Group (VPSG) contacted Aramark, who have the contract for the majority of prison shops, to outline their concerns that vegans were not catered for in prison shops under Aramark's control.
In 2002 Mr Martin Narey gave his commitment to VPSG that vegans would be properly catered for by the end of that year. However, although VPSG's recommendations were accepted in 2005 by the Prison Service the prison shop issue continues to remain unresolved and vegans remain disadvantaged in prison shops under the Aramark contract.
Therefore, your help is requested in order to ensure that this minority group are able to have access to basic day to day vegan products, such as:
Hygiene/Body Care (eg hair conditioner, moisturiser etc)
Soya Products (eg tofu, soya desserts, a chocolate alternative, biscuits etc)
Supplements for good health (eg zinc, iodine etc)
Herbal Remedies (eg feverfew for headaches, tea tree oil for fungal infections etc)
None of the items recommended by VPSG are luxury items, just equivalent items non-vegan prisoners have available on a regular basis for their purchase through their prison shops.
Prison shops under independent management appear to cater successfully for vegan prisoners in a matter of weeks, yet Aramark are still unable to provide equal opportunities for this minority group 10 years after it was drawn to their attention.
Further details are available at
www.vpsg.info/Progress.htmlI look forward to your reply.
Yours Sincerely
(...........your name and address)