The Food Foundation Podcast

Pod Bites: New land use vision as farmers face big squeeze

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT

This week Dustin Benton, Managing Director of Sustainability at Forefront Advisors, tells us about the Land Use Framework and why it's essential to help England grow better quality food, decarbonize and restore nature.

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Bang in Some Beans: Can beans boost your mood?

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Can the mighty bean change the way we feel? Plant biologist Nadia Radzman, of Cambridge University, has found evidence showing the Fava bean contains chemicals linked to lasting improvements in the moods and emotions of those consuming them. So in the final episode of our Bang in Some Beans podcast series, presenter Melissa Hemsley quizzes a group of women about the impact soy beans have influenced their hormonal health with nutritional therapist and author of The Natural Menopause Method, Karen Newby.

And as they report back on a month of upping their bean intake, food writer, Emiko Davies offers them a miso and walnut paste from her latest book, The Japanese Pantry to test. You can find the recipe for Emiko's Walnut Miso here, the recipe for Karen's White Bean Salad with Tahini Dressing here and more delicious bean recipes here.

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Pod Bites: What communities can teach us about food

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Dr Mhairi Brown, Head of Food Futures at the Food Farming and Countryside Commission, tells us about a Citizen Advisory Council's reports on regional food systems.

The findings will feed into the development of Defra's new Food Strategy, offering new insights into how national government can help regional food systems thrive – and what they can learn from work already happening to transform food.

Click here for more information on the Citizen Advisory Council reports, and here for the Food Foundation newsletter.

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Bang in Some Beans: Do Beans Give You Wind?

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this episode of Bang in Some Beans, we're tackling the thorny question - does eating them give you wind?

MasterChef winner, gastroenterologist and fibre expert Dr Saliha Mahmood-Ahmed, explains what really happens in our gut when we add more beans to our diet, while Hannah Wilding from Bold Bean's reveals how slow-cooking them can help your digestive system.

Presenter Melissa Hemsley also hears the verdict of Food Ambassador Jo McLoughlin, who tests Dr Saliha's Bean Quesadillas recipe. You can find the recipe for Dr Saliha's Bean Quesadillas here and more delicious bean recipes here.

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Pod Bites: Struggling to put food on the table

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Holly Cooper, Research Lead at the Food Foundation, tells us about new figures from the charity this week showing food insecurity is increasing, and why that makes really strong case for the Good Food Bill to be introduced in the UK.

Find out more on Round 18 of our tracking data here and read our latest Fixing Food For Good report here

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Bang in Some Beans: Protein for Performance

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Did you know beans can boost athletic performance and recovery? England Rugby World Cup winner Sarah Bern explains why and shares insights on elite performance in our latest Bang in Some Beans podcast.

We also hear from Jeffrey Boadi, a semi-professional footballer and tennis player who went plant-based eight years ago and author of Plant Fuel: 80 Easy and Energising Recipes Packed with Protein and Fibre, about how protein can power up our game.

Presenter Chef Melissa Hemsley follows us to Hove Rugby Club to meet six players from one of the UK’s top under-14 girls’ teams to see what fuels their game, and surprises them with a visit from Sarah Bern herself. Food writer and cook Claire Thomson, aka 5 o'Clock Apron, shares her Black Bean Brownies recipe, which is taste-tested by the competitive athlete family, the Goldenbergs.

You can find the recipe for Claire's Black Bean Brownies here and more delicious bean recipes here.

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Pod Bites: How global conflicts impact food prices

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Professor Aled Jones, director of the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, tells us how global conflicts can impact food prices and reveals concerns that disruption to food supplies could lead to social unrest in the UK.

We believe a Good Food Bill is vital to protect citizens, farmers and food businesses from such shocks, read why here.

Keep up to date with all our latest news by signing up to our newsletter.

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Bang in Some Beans: The Great British Breakfast Myth

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

What comes to mind when you think of the Great British Breakfast? Chef Melissa Hemsley delves into one of Britain's most iconic meals: the full English to explore its traditions for our latest Bang in Some Beans podcast.

Food writer and Guardian columnist Felicity Cloake, author of Red Sauce, Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey, reveals the surprisingly modern story of baked beans at breakfast - and how clever marketing helped cement them as a fry-up staple.

We also hear from super-storyteller Hannah Wilding of Bold Bean co who shares ideas for reimagining beans beyond the classic sugary sauce and pop over to The Upper Dicker Village Shop in the heart of Sussex to chat with locals about what really belongs on a breakfast plate.

Meanwhile, food writer and nutritionist Emma Bardwell, author of The Fibre Effect, The Surprising and Easy Way to Transform your Health makes the case for fibre-rich beans as the breakfast upgrade we didn’t know we needed - and Team Bean’s Dan Bradley puts her miso beans on toast to the test.

You can find the recipe for Emma's Miso Beans on Toast here and more delicious bean recipes here.

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Parents under Pressure: The rising cost of baby formula

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Dr Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Food Foundation, leads a panel of experts to talk about Early Years nutrition, drawing on some of the findings of the Food Foundation's recent Early Years report series.

She is joined by Food Foundation Ambassador, Glory Omoaka, Corin Bell, the new CEO of Alexandra Rose, and Amy Brown, Professor of Public Health at Swansea University.

Sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with our latest news and events, and here for more information on our Early Years reports.

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Bang in Some Beans: The Bean Britain Forgot

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Once a staple in British kitchens for more than 2,000 years, the fava bean has been all but forgotten - until now! Known for its versatility and low-carbon footprint, this ancient legume is making a comeback on plates and in farms across the country.

In episode two of our Bang in Some Beans podcast series, chef Melissa Hemsley hears from Josiah Meldrum of Hodmedod's and farmer Emma Loder-Symonds tells us why she mills her fava beans; and the University of Reading's Raising the Pulse project presents a vision of how fava bean flour could change the conversation around white sliced bread, while chef and author Tim Anderson gives us his recipe for miso twists.

You can find the recipe for Tim Anderson's Miso Twists here and more delicious bean recipes here.

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Pod Bites: A Good Food Bill - why now?

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Anna Taylor, Executive Director of the Food Foundation tells us about the launch of the campaign for a Good Food Bill.

The Food Foundation, with partners Green Alliance and Sustain, are calling on the government to introduce this new bill to transform the UK's food system and ensure food and nutrition security for current and future generations.

For the latest on the campaign click here. You can also keep up to date with our latest news by signing up to our newsletter.

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Bang in Some Beans: The Aisles of Power

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

In this major new podcast series as part of The Food Foundation, Veg Power and Beans in How's three-year mission to get the UK eating more beans, chef and writer Melissa Hemsley shows us how these little powerhouses of goodness are so good for our health, good for the planet and such good news for stretched family budgets.

In this first episode, Ian Theasby, one half of the super-influencer recipe developer and food writing team, BOSH! tells us how and why supermarkets can change the conversation about beans; Dr Jo Lunn, head nutritionist at Waitrose takes us behind the scene to show us what's happening in the aisles of power; and Food Foundation ambassador Jani Clarke and her Nan and Grandad try out BOSH!'s Ultimate Chilli recipe - and it more than lives up to the hype.

You can find the recipe for BOSH!'s Ultimate Chilli here and more delicious bean recipes here.

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Bang in Some Beans: The Trailer

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Bang in Some Beans, the six-part mini series from The Food Foundation and Veg Power, who have partnered on a three-year mission to get the UK eating more beans.

Presented by chef Melissa Hemsley, it’s part of a major new project to challenge the way we think about beans.

The series is a deep dive into the stories behind beans. We need to eat more beans; beans, pulses and lentils are little powerhouses of goodness. They’re good for our health, good for the planet and good news for stretched family budgets.

Over six episodes, we find out why there’s so much innovation in beans, why athletes are all over them and how they can even help our mental and hormonal health.

We see beans as a serious, surprising cultural topic, prodding conversations about the bean that’s as much about taste and cost as it is about public health, planetary health, British food culture and class and identity.

We want to show that beans are more than a lifestyle choice — they’re a system solution. They provide accessible affordable protein in a cost-of-living crisis, they’re a low-carbon food in a climate emergency and could fix the fibre deficit in UK diets.

Join us every Tuesday as we bang in some beans...

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Pod Bites: New rules on "less healthy" foods

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Katherine Jenner, Executive Director of the Obesity Health Alliance tells us about the new nutrient profile model that has finally been published by the government, and the very real consequences of how food and drink will be advertised and promoted, especially to children.

Click here to sign up for The Food Foundation newsletter.

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Improving children's diets: What works?

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Leticija Petrovic, the local food policy lead at the Food Foundation leads a panel discussion about school food, what works to improve school food menus and children’s nutrition, and what we can learn from what is already happening on the ground.

The discussion is inspired by a new research project led by the University of Birmingham, and the panel includes: Dr Katie Edwards, research fellow in Psychology at the University of Birmingham; Sarah Newton, who leads the food system team in Public Health Division at Birmingham City Council as well as the Birmingham Food System strategy, and is a driving force behind Birmingham Food Revolution; and Sian Kidd, Food Security Engagement Officer at Monmouthshire County Council. Sian is also the founder and director of Secret Soup Society, a social enterprise working to reduce food waste and provide healthy, nutritious food for the community.

Click here for more information on the University of Birmingham research, here for Birmingham's Food System strategy, and here for Chwedlau Bwyd, the creative food education programme that was delivered for Year 3 pupils in primary schools across Monmouthshire.

Click here for the Food Foundation newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Fibre February

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Good gut vibes only. Fibre February is the perfect time to Bang in Some Beans!

Chloe MacKean, Food Business Transformation Manager at The Food Foundation tells us about the campaign to double UK bean consumption, and how fibre is so essential for our health.

Check out the Bang in Some Beans Instagram for delicious beany recipes, and keep an ear out for our Bang in Some Beans podcast series coming very soon! Don't miss out on our latest updates - make sure you're signed up for The Food Foundation's newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Locked out of food assistance

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT

As food assistance goes digital, vulnerable people risk being shut out. Iris Lim, postdoctoral researcher from SOAS University of London tells us about her research into the barriers people face in accessing support and the overlaps between digital poverty and food poverty.

Join us on 12 February to dive deeper at an event with the SOAS research team - you can attend either in person or online. Register for free here and read the SOAS research in full here

To catch the latest updates from The Food Foundation, sign up for our newsletter here.

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Pod Bites: Is school food up to scratch?

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Food Foundation tells us about our latest film project which gives a vision of great school food for all children across the country.

The Lunch They Deserve is a film by The Tin Bear Project and presented by Emma Thompson and the Food Foundation's Young Ambassadors, gives us a vision of school food that is nourishing and tasty, where our school food is a source of national pride, and of a country where kids are fuelled and ready to learn because of the food they have eaten.

Click to sign up for the Food Foundation newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Making food work for everyone

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Andrew Stark, Senior Researcher and Policy Manager at Eating Better, discusses the work of 160 organisations advocating for UK government improvements in the food system. The NGO , itself an alliance of over 70 organisations, has published 17 recommendations for a coherent food policy, emphasising a joined-up healthy food and sustainable farming plan, nature-friendly farming, and affordable, culturally appropriate diets.

Click here for more information on Eating Better and sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest food systems analysis.

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Pod Bites: Banning junk food adverts

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Katherine Jenner, Executive Director of the Obesity Health Alliance, gives us her view on the new junk food advertising restrictions.

Read our blog for more in-depth analysis here. Click here for more information from the Obesity Health Alliance on the junk food advert ban, and sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest food systems analysis.

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Pod Bites: Why family meals matter

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Do family meals mean children eat healthier food? How often are families sitting down together to eat?

Dan Parker, Chief Executive of Veg Power, tells us about the latest research understanding what family mealtimes look like in this New Year pod bite. The insights are based on a survey by its Families and Food Task Force, which includes parents, retailers, government, chefs, nutritionists, psychologists, behavioural scientists and the world of advertising and media.

Click here for more information on the survey, learn about our Bang in Some Beans campaign with Veg Power here and sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with our latest food systems analysis.

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Pod Bites: Plant-based food justice

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Sarah Bentley, founder of plant-based community cookery school and charity, Made in Hackney tells us how a small community initiative became the catalyst for a global plant based food justice movement.

Read our latest food insecurity report here and sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with updates about the food system.

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Pod Bites: Christmas on a shoestring

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Alicia Weston, CEO of Bags of Taste explains why rising prices and food inflation can make a traditional Christmas unaffordable and inaccessible for too many people in the UK.

Read our latest food insecurity report here and sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with updates about the food system.

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Pod Bites: Child Poverty - are we failing?

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Food Foundation tells us about the new child poverty strategy published at the end of last week, with reflections from the policy team.

Read our latest blog for more in-depth analysis here and keep up to date with our latest news and events by signing up to our newsletter.

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Pod Bites: What's going on in our food industry?

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Rebecca Tobi, Head of Food Business Transformation at the Food Foundation tell us about our new State of the Nation's Food Industry report for 2025 which we launched this week.

Click here to read the report, and here to watch a a panel of leading food businesses and investors analysing the findings. Sign up to our newsletter for all our latest news and updates here.

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Pod Bites: The Budget and food bills

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Food Foundation has been digesting the autumn budget through the lens of diet and health inequalities, and gives us a quick whistle stop tour of some of the key announcements relevant to the work of the Food Foundation.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto, read our Budget blog here and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Closing the gaps in NHS Healthy Start

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT

This week, Tilda Ferree, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer at the Food Foundation gives us an update about the Healthy Start campaign and why the Food Foundation is pushing for this government to strengthen the scheme as part of the child poverty strategy.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Will the PM deliver on school food?

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT

In this week's Pod Bite, Anna Taylor, Executive Director of the Food Foundation tells us about the launch of the Government's School Breakfast Programme from its new Office for the Impact Economy, a single front door for impact investors, philanthropy and purpose driven businesses to partner with government and collectively grow social impact across the UK.

Click here to read our latest blog on the subject and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Bang in Some Beans

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Chloe McKean, Food Business Transformation Manager of The Food Foundation, tells us about a brand new campaign with Veg Power: Bang in Some Beans, which aims to double the consumption of beans in the UK by 2028.

Click here to sign up for The Food Foundation newsletter and here for more information on the Bang in Some Beans campaign.

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Just the Start: Nutrition in Early Years Settings

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Kicking off our new podcast series, we dive right into the heart of nutrition for the youngest children with a focus on Early Years settings.

Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at The Food Foundation is joined by a panel of experts for a deep dive into early years nutrition: Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, and also a Food Foundation trustee, Sarah Ambrose, Area Manager and Curriculum Lead for Safari Child Care, Dayna Brackley, Partner at Bremner and Co, and Charlotte Stirling-Reed, registered nutritionist.

Early years nutrition is essential to life long-health and wellbeing, giving children the best start in life. Over a million children are attending some form of formal childcare setting, so what and how they are fed in those settings is really important. Read our latest report on early years nutrition policy here.

Please sign up for our newsletter to hear the latest updates from The Food Foundation.

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Pod Bites: Millions struggling to afford food

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Shona Goudie, Policy and Advocacy Manager at the Food Foundation tells us about our new report, Roadmap to Reducing Food Insecurity which investigates the impact of food insecurity over the past few years and what we can learn from it.

The report aims to understand the scale of the problem, the extent to which people are struggling, and identify who is at most at risk so the government and local authorities can most effectively target support.

Click here to read the report, and here to sign up to our newsletter.

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Pod Bites: The Protein Revolution

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Lydia Collas, Head of Natural Environment at Green Alliance tells us about their report published this month which explores the consequences of eating more plant-based food for food security, for economic growth and for our health.

Click here for the full report, here to learn how climate change is affecting food prices and here to sign up to our newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Can we eat to save the planet?

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Anna Taylor, Executive Director at The Food Foundation analyses the latest EAT-Lancet Commission report which warns that food systems are breaching planetary limits.

The 2025 Report on Healthy, Sustainable, and Just Food Systems presents the most comprehensive to date.

Click here to find out how Climateflation is affecting food prices and here to sign up to our newsletter for update and analysis of food system developments.

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Pod Bites: Food on the Fringe at Labour Conference

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Joss McDonald, Public Affairs Lead at the Food Foundation reports back from the Labour Party Annual Conference in Liverpool, and finds a party not blowing its own trumpet on its food policy wins.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: A £600m School Meals Windfall for Farmers

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Barbara Crowther, Children's Food Campaign Manager at Sustain, the Alliance for Better Food and Farming, tells us about how the expansion of healthy school meals to all children could work better, not just for children's health, but also for local, sustainable and British farming.

Click here for more information on Sustain's Follow the Carrot campaign, and here to sign up for the Food Foundation newsletter.

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Bigger than a crisis: Why is our health a postcode lottery?

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 23:00:00 GMT

Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Food Foundation is joined by Food Foundation Ambassador and mother of two young children from Hartlepool, Barbara Achingale, Vic Harper, CEO of The Bread and Butter Thing, and Amanda Bailey, Director of the North East Child Poverty Commission to talk about diet and health inequalities across England.

With the publication this week of a new dashboard from The Food Foundation which estimates the prevalence of diet-related disease by constituency, drawing on local authority data, the panel explores the factors in the North East which make strong links to deprivation.

Read The Food Foundation's latest news here and sign up for our newsletter here.

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Pod Bites: Better off with Beans

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Rebecca Tobi, Head of Food Business Transformation at the Food Foundation tells us about a major new programme of work The Food Foundation is kicking off across the UK this year to better support everyone in the UK to eat more beans.

Read The Food Foundation's latest news here and sign up for our newsletter here.

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Pod Bites: Harvesting Veg Power

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Dan Parker, Chief Executive of Veg Power, tells us about the Veg Power Summit happening on 18th September, which will brings together 100 food sector leaders with a shared purpose to improve children's dietary health.

Click here for more information on Veg Power, read The Food Foundation's latest news here and sign up for our newsletter here.

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Pod Bites: The financial risks of unhealthy food

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Garance Boullenger, Lead at the Healthy Markets Initiative at Share Action, a UK based NGO, campaigning for a fairer, healthier financial system tells us about a powerful move from a group of investors to urge the UK Government to introduce ambitious mandatory health reporting for the food industry.

Click here to read the Investor Letter from Share Action, here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Food Shocks

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 11:00:00 GMT

As the Government publishes its monthly food inflation statistics, Anna Taylor, the Executive Director of the Food Foundation tells us what's that means for the weekly supermarket shop.

Click here for more information on the Food Prices Tracker.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: The nature & biodiversity cost of our diets

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Sarah Buszard, the Responsible Investor Lead at the Food Foundation tells us about our latest briefing that discusses the critical relationship between dietary patterns and the environmental impacts of food production on nature and biodiversity loss and the need for systemic change towards more sustainable food systems.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Can Recipe Boxes improve our diets?

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Noah Cooke, PhD student at MRC Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge University, tells us about a pilot project exploring the impact of recipe-boxes on dietary quality and food agency in households with school-aged children.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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10th Anniversary Special: Inside a decade of food policy change

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 11:00:00 GMT

In this 151st episode of The Food Foundation Podcast, Anna Taylor, Chief Executive at the Food Foundation celebrates its first 10 years with some of the people who have shared its journey.

Laura Sandys OBE, chair and founder of the Food Foundation, Dev Sharma, 20-year-old food activist and young food ambassador at the Food Foundation, Henry Dimbleby MBE and Baroness Rosie Boycott, member of The House of Lords, and the Food Foundation board look back at some of the triumphs and challenges of calling on policy makers to recognize the central importance of the food system in shaping the nation's health and wealth.

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Pod Bites: Breaking the junk food cycle

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Anna Taylor, Executive Director of the Food Foundation talks through the news that the Government has just published a policy paper setting out its ambition for its new food strategy. Anna, who also sits on the Government's Food Strategy Advisory Board, explains the overall ambition of the strategy.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Junk food in schools

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Danielle Glavin, Head of Communications at Chefs in Schools tells us about its report into the school food standards and what parents want for their children.

In its latest poll with Survation of 1000 parents across all regions and income brackets, clear themes have emerged about the demand for fresh food in school meals.

Click here for the full report, the Food Foundation Manifesto and to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Will the NHS 10-year plan deliver?

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Dr Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Food Foundation, reflects on the much-anticipated 10-year NHS plan and recent announcements about mandatory reporting and the Healthy Start scheme.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Groundswell 2025

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Jo Rowling, Head of Campaigns at the Food Foundation introduces Sheila Dillon's report from Groundswell 2025, the regenerative agriculture festival ahead of The Food Foundation panel discussion on beans, legumes, peas and pulses.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Why should kids pay for school food?

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 11:00:00 GMT

This week, young Food Ambassador Dev Sharma hosts a very special panel discussion to celebrate the Government's announcement that free school meal eligibility will be expanded to all children in households on Universal Credit, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty, and giving access to a hot, healthy school lunch to around 500,000 more pupils.

Dev is joined on the panel Rushda, a 16-year-old Food Ambassador from Halifax, Dr Sam Rushworth, the MP for Bishop Auckland, and Reema Reid, Headteacher of Holydale Primary School in London.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto, here for the Broken Plate report, and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Did the Spending Review deliver?

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 05:00:00 GMT

In this week's Pod Bites, Shona Goudie, Policy and Advocacy Manager at the Food Foundation gives a rundown on what we need to know about last week's spending review when it comes to food.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter. And watch this space for more clarity and updates from The Food Foundation.

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Pod Bites: Junk Food adverts gamble

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Fran Bernhardt, the Commercial Determinants Coordinator of Sustain the Alliance for Better Food and Farming, explains the impact of the latest Government delay in TV and online advertising restrictions.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Major school meals campaign win

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Anna Taylor, Executive Director of The Food Foundation on the thrilling news this week from Government on the expansion of free school meals. From September 2026, all children in England who are in households eligible for Universal Credit, will become eligible for free school meals. Anna explains what that means to around half a million additional children from early years settings right through to sixth form, and to the health and wealth of the nation.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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The Battleground Over Eating Meat

Fri, 30 May 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Rebecca Tobi, Senior Business and Investor Engagement Manager at the Food Foundation hosts a panel discussion to discuss meat consumption in the UK to coincide with the launch of a new Food Foundation briefing Meat Facts, published this week,which really delves into who in the UK is eating what meat, what type of meat are we all eating, and where are we eating it.

The panel comprises: Sarah Wakefield, Executive Director at the Eating Better Alliance, Sophie Bauer, Head of Food System Transformation at WWF, Mark Breen, Senior Creative Partner at the environmental charity, Hubbub, and Dr Shireen Kasam, Consultant Haematologist and honorary Senior Lecturer at King's College Hospital, London, and founder of Plant Based Health Professionals UK.

Click on the links below for more information on meat consumption and why we need to care, and here for the Food Foundation report, Meat Facts

https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/how-uks-supermarkets-stack-climate-change-commitments

https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/low-hanging-fruit-policy-pathway-boosting-uptake-plant-rich-diets

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Boosting Early Years Nutrition

Fri, 23 May 2025 11:00:00 GMT

In this week's Pod Bite, Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation, tells us about our new report on early years nutrition.

This report is the third in the series conducting an in-depth study on early years food and nutrition to investigate how the food system and food policy is contributing to the high levels of overweight and obesity in early childhood.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Shocking salt levels in ready meals

Fri, 16 May 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Sonia Pombo, head of impact and research at Action on Salt, tells us about the charity's latest research published for Salt Awareness Week from May 12-18th, highlighting salt levels in ready meals and six ways we can reduce our salt intake.

Click here for more information on Salt Awareness Week, here the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: How climate friendly are our supermarkets?

Fri, 09 May 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Jessica Sinclair Taylor, Deputy Director of Feedback, on its new Retailer Targets report, Commitment Issues; Why UK retailers climate commitments are failing to deliver and what can be done to fix it.

The research, commissioned by Feedback and The Food Foundation shows that despite the UK's 10 major supermarkets making a climate commitment every six days – they are failing against own promises.

Click here for the report, the Food Foundation Manifesto, here for its report Low Hanging Fruit, and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Can plant-rich diets heal the nation?

Fri, 02 May 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Alice English, Project Officer in the Business and Policy team at the Food Foundation tells us about a new policy pathway we have published this week in collaboration with Green Alliance and the Good Food Institute. Low Hanging Fruit is a set of pragmatic and easily implementable policy recommendations to boost plant-rich diets in the UK.

Click here for more information on Low Hanging Fruit, the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Food Activist Toolkit

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Lucy Heyderman, Citizen Engagement Manager at the Food Foundation and Yusuf Shobair, one of our Young Food Ambassadors introduce The Food Activist Toolkit which helps young people find their voice and make real change in the food system.

Click here to find out more about the Toolkit, here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Climate shocks and food prices

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Pete Smith, Professor of Global Change and Soils at the University of Aberdeen tells us about the Climate Inflation Project on how climate change affects food inflation causing food price spikes around the world, and how that affects people in the UK's most disadvantaged communities.

Click here for more information on the project, here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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250,000 reasons to fix school food

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 11:00:00 GMT

Keira, one of the young food ambassadors at the Food Foundation, is with a panel of experts to find out about Auto Enrolment on Free School Meals. They explore how it can help the 250,000 children who are entitled to a free school meals but are missing out because of the barriers to registering.

Professor Maria Bryant, researcher on Fix Our Food, the University of York's five-year research programme is joined by Myles Bremner, CEO of Bremner and co and a partner on the project, Peter Lamb MP, Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Deputy Chair of the Children and Young People's board at the Local Government Association and Rhett, a single father who reports from the front line of food poverty.

Click on the links for more information on Fix our Food, the Food Foundation Manifesto and to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Corporate lobbying in food

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 11:31:30 GMT

Sarah Buszard, Responsible Investor Engagement Lead at the Food Foundation explains the findings of our latest report, Corporate Lobbying: The Dark Side of the Plate.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: The Spring Statement

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation reflects on the Spring Statement, how it could impact on food insecurity and what some of the opportunities are in the next few months to try and address this problem.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Child poverty in Wales

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 12:00:00 GMT

In this week's Pod Bites, Callum Morrissey , a 15-year-old Welsh Youth Parliament member of Clwyd West and young ambassador for the Food Foundation, discusses the Youth Parliament's efforts to tackle child poverty in Wales.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Superpowers launch in parliament

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 12:00:00 GMT

On this week's Pod Bite, we hear about the launch of two reports on the accessibility of healthy food for children.

As part of the Feed the Future campaign, The Food Foundation hosted a special event at Central Hall in Westminster this week to showcase the benefits of Free School Meals has on academic attainment levels, school food quality, food insecurity, obesity, behaviour, school attendance, and local economies.

Policy and Advocacy Manager at the Food Foundation, Shona Goudie tells us about the launch of the Superpower of Free School Meals report at the event, while Barnardo's head of Policy and Public Affairs Alesha de Freitas gives us the highlights of its Nourishing the Future report.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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World Obesity Day 2025

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 12:30:58 GMT

On World Obesity Day, Anna Taylor, Executive Director at the Food Foundation leads a panel discussion on the systems that need to be in place to enable people to maintain a healthy weight and prevent obesity.

With Kat Jenner, head of the Obesity Health Alliance, Dr Sophie Harris, consultant in diabetes in general medicine, Dr Stuart Flint, Associate Professor of the Psychology of Obesity at the University of Leeds and Penny Walters, adult ambassador for the Food Foundation who campaigns for a change in the food system.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: What's happening with food prices?

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Tilda Ferree, Senior Advocacy and Policy Officer at the Food Foundation tell us about the latest Food Foundation's Food Insecurity Survey.

Click here for more information on the report.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Baby formula concerns

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Dr Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Food Foundation tells us about a new report from the Competition Markets Authority discussing pricing and access to infant formula.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Our Photo Story Project

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Dan White and Glory Omoaka, two of the food ambassadors for The Food Foundation, tell us about the Photo-Storytelling Exhibition which accompanied the launch of this year's Broken Plate report and aims to bring to a human element to statistics featured in the report.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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The Broken Plate Report 2025

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

This week, Anna Taylor, Chief Executive of the Food Foundation discusses the latest annual Broken Plate report with Sue Pritchard, Executive Director of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission, Malcolm Clark, Senior Policy Manager at Cancer Research UK and Geoff Ogle, the Chief Executive of Food Standards Scotland.

We also hear what Dr Chris Van Tulleken, Daniel Zeichner, Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and one the Food Foundation's adult food ambassadors, Caroline Woolham think of the report.

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Pod Bites: Healthy Start campaign

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Vicky Gilroy health visitor, children' nurse and Director of Innovation Research at the Institute of Health Visiting on the Healthy Start scheme.

She tells us why the Food Foundation, along with more than 80 partner organisations, have written a letter to the Government calling for important changes to help pregnant women and those with babies and toddlers living in poverty receive the basic support they need for their children to grow up healthily..

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Recipe for Change campaign

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation is with a panel from politics, policy, academia and investment to discuss what we need from the new government, including from the new food strategy and the mission boards, to really incentivize a healthier food system and ensure everyone can access and afford a healthy diet.

The episode is part of our recipe for change campaign led by Sustain, The Food Foundation, Obesity Health Alliance, with a wider coalition of nearly 50 supporting organisations. The campaign is calling for the government to introduce a new tax on food companies to encourage them to improve the healthiness of the food they sell us and play their part in supporting our health.

To discuss the opportunities of the new government and what is to come, Hannah is joined by Alison Tedstone, former Department of Health and Public Health England chief nutritionist; conservative peer, James Bethell; Adam Briggs from the Health Foundation and Antony Yousefian, a partner at The First Thirty Ventures.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter. Click here for more on Recipe for Change, read its latest briefing here and about public support for Government intervention to ensure a healthier food industry here.

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Pod Bites: The Oxford Farming Conference

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 12:00:00 GMT

The Food Foundation’s Executive Director Anna Taylor reports back from the 2025 Oxford Farming Conference where she presented a joined-up horticulture and healthy food strategy, making the link between the UK’s poor diet with social inequity. She argued that the UK’s increasing reliance on highly processed cheap food has led to a dangerously weak fresh produce sector and a downward spiral for health.

Here she takes us through what she sees as the opportunities for securing more minimally processed foods from farms produced in Britain. She explains that this could deliver benefits for both farmers and consumers at the same time, and help to tackle some of these crisis at either end of the supply chain.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Exploring regenerative agriculture

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Richard Kipling, researcher in the TABLE initiative at Oxford University tells us about our work on the Reckoning with Regeneration Project. This one year project, funded by the AGILE initiative, focuses on regenerative agriculture, and examines whether or not it can deliver sustainable, nutritious food and a just food system.

Click on the links above for more information. Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Revolutionising hospital food

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 12:00:37 GMT

Kelly Parsons from the University of Cambridge tells us about an exciting initiative to make the food served in Birmingham Children's Hospital more environmentally sustainable.

This initiative is being delivered and evaluated as part of the Mandala Consortium Research project, one of the research projects funded by the UK Research and Innovation Program on transforming the UK food system and help create a 'net zero' NHS.

Click here to find more about the project.

Click for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Campaigners review 2024

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:00:11 GMT

In this last Pod Bites of the year, Food Foundation Ambassadors, 16 year-old Alex Istrate and Adult Food Ambassador, Dominic Watters look back on their highlights as advocates for a fairer, more sustainable food system.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Should healthy eating advice be updated?

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 12:00:49 GMT

Sarah Pullen, Food System Lead at Birmingham City Council, tells us about the city's journey to transform our food system, and the Birmingham Eating Guidance Exploration report into how to create an environment where people have the capability, opportunity and motivation to eat a nutritious and sustainable diet.

Click here for the resources and to read the report, and click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Labour's new Food Strategy

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:00:38 GMT

Dr Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation on the latest Government Food Security Report and the announcement that there will be a new food strategy.

Click here for more information on the report, the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Making sense of Ultra Processed Food

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 12:00:30 GMT

Following last week's BBC documentary, Irresistible: Why We Can't Stop Eating by Chris Van Tulleken, Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation leads a panel discussion on ultra processed food and what we should do to tackle some of the problems arising from eating so much of it.

The panel comprises Kimberley Wilson, chartered psychologist who's also qualified in nutrition and the author of Unprocessed. Maurice Cousins, head of campaigns at Public First on the political perspective, Food Foundation Adult Food Ambassador, Kathleen Kerridge and Beccy Cooper MP, Labour MP for Worthing West, public health doctor and who sits on the Health Select Committee.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: London's Free School Meals trial

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 12:00:33 GMT

Dr Katharine Vincent, director of Reconnect London on More than a Meal, an independent evaluation of the first year of London's policy to provide free school meals to all primary age children in state funded schools.

Read our Food Foundation Manifesto and subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss any updates.

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The truth about the state of the nation's food industry

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 12:00:12 GMT

Rebecca Tobi, Senior Business and Investor Engagement Manager at the Food Foundation hosts a panel discussion on this year's SOFI report. This annual report tracks and assesses the progress of major UK food businesses towards healthier and more sustainable diets.

Joining Rebecca on the panel are: Lauren Woodley, Group Nutrition Leader at Nomad foods, Claire Atkins Morris, Director of Sustainability at Sodexo, Nilani Sritheran, Group Head of Healthy and Sustainable Diets at Sainsbury's, and Matt Lomas,

Engagement Director at Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation.

Read the SOFI report, and the Food Foundation Manifesto and subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss any updates.

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Pod Bites: Public appetite for extending the 'sugar tax'

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 12:00:37 GMT

Alfie Slade, the Government Affairs lead at the Obesity Health Alliance on how Britain feels about the food business.

The Recipe for Change campaign explores the public’s attitude towards a new levy on unhealthy food and drink.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and don't forget to sign up to our newsletter - find out more about the Recipe for Change campaign here.

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Pod Bites: The hidden costs of our food system

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 12:00:56 GMT

In this week's Pod Bites, Greg Garrett, Executive Director of the Access to Nutrition Initiative tells us the role of business, investors and policy makers in market transformation for nutrition. He argues that embracing nutrition is no longer an option, but must be core to business.

Click here for more information on the ATNI's Global Access to Nutrition Index and here to sign up to The Food Foundation's webinar examining the key findings of our State of the Nation's Food Industry Report which publishes on Thursday, November 14, 2024.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Will the Budget change anything?

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 12:00:42 GMT

Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation, gives her assessment of the autumn budget.

Despite a focus on children's health, the Chancellor's announcements lacked significant support for poor households and Hannah touches on key subjects such as the Healthy Start scheme, early years support, free school meals and the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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Pod Bites: The double jeopardy facing our food system

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 11:00:07 GMT

Anna Taylor, Executive Director of The Food Foundation gives her response to the new House of Lords Food Diet and Obesity Committee report, Recipe for Health: a plan to fix our broken food system, which was published this week.

The report calls for regulatory changes to the food system, including mandatory reformulation targets, a tax on sugar and salt, bans on advertising and celebrity endorsements for unhealthy foods, and mandatory reporting on food healthiness. It emphasizes the need for mandatory approaches over voluntary ones and for insulating policy from commercial interests. It also proposes strengthening nutritional safety nets for children and improving the government's policy infrastructure. The Food Foundation urges the government to act on these recommendations to improve public health and reduce dietary inequalities.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter and for more analysis check out our latest webinar on our YouTube channel.

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Hit or miss? Labour's first 100 days in power

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 11:00:18 GMT

Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation, discusses the first 100 days of the new government with Samson Low from Unison, Sophie Metcalf from the Institute of Government, Lydia Collas, head of natural environment at the Green Alliance, and Baroness Rosie Boycott, member of the House of Lords.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto, and here for the Newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Pushed to the Brink

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 11:00:34 GMT

Ana Maria Narvaez, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer at the Food Foundation, reports on the interconnected crises of food insecurity and mental health in the UK to coincide with World Mental Health Day.

She highlights that 28% of adults with mental health conditions live in food-insecure households, compared to 11% without such conditions. Financial instability due to mental health issues exacerbates food insecurity, leading to anxiety, depression, and stress. The inability to afford nutritious food impacts both physical and mental well-being, particularly in children, who face higher rates of mental health issues and school absenteeism.

The Food Foundation calls for policies addressing the cost of healthy food, benefit levels, and extending nutritional support programs to alleviate these intertwined crises. Click here for more information on Pushed to the Brink

Click here for the Manifesto and here for the Newsletter.

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Pod Bites: A third of children in poverty denied access to Free School Meals

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 11:00:37 GMT

This week, Kate Anstey, Head of Education Policy at Child Poverty Action Group on the latest analysis published this week with The Food Foundation The report urges local leaders to do everything they can to ensure more children get a free lunch but say the onus is squarely on the UK government to expand provision of free school meals and end classroom hunger.

Click here for more information, here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up to our newsletter.

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The unsung heroes transforming food systems across the UK

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 11:00:04 GMT

Leticija Petrovic, the local food policy lead at the Food Foundation revisits a subject we covered a few months ago in our series of Pod Bites, how place-based, community-led food initiatives can help people access affordable, healthy and sustainable food.

She looks more deeply into just three of the 10 models in this collaborative study by the University of Leeds and the Food Foundation, using the Priority Places for Food Index developed by the Consumer Data Research Centre in collaboration with the consumer group, Which? The aim: to gather data about the risk of food insecurity across seven areas in the UK and identify neighbourhoods which are most vulnerable to the rises in the cost of living.

With Professor Michelle Morris of the University of Leeds, Juli Thompson of Food Savers, Bradford, Megan Weimann of The Warehouse in Newtonards and Reeni Kennedy-Boyle of Fyne Futures Ltd in Argyle and Bute.

Click here for more information on Scaling Out, here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up to our newsletter.

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Pod Bites: How do we get children our children to eat more fruit & veg?

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 11:00:31 GMT

Bee Wilson, author of ground-breaking books First Bite, The Way We Eat Now and most recently, The Secret of Cooking on TastEd, the food charity which shows how teaching kids to taste in school can lead to them learning to eat more healthily.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto, and here for the Food Foundation Newsletter.

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Pod Bites: The story behind Britain's youngest protest

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 11:00:12 GMT

Paul McDonald,Chief Campaigns Officer of Health Equals on this summer's Make Health Equal campaign.

Where you're born in the UK can cut your life short by up to 16 years because of factors from income to housing, air quality, access to healthy food and community connections. The Make Health Equal campaign demonstrated that change is possible for the next generation, and Paul explains how it worked.

Click here for more information, here for the Food Foundation and here for the Food Foundation Newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Rethinking Plant-based Meat Alternatives

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 11:00:57 GMT

Rebecca Tobi, senior business and investor engagement manager at the Food Foundation on a new piece of research exploring plant based alternatives to meat.

In a report called Rethinking Plant-based Meat Alternatives, the Food Foundation creates a taxonomy of the best plant-based options for meeting health, environmental and affordability objectives.

Click here for the report, here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here for the Newsletter.

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Our inspirational young Food Ambassadors

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 11:00:06 GMT

Fayeth Jones, one of the original Food Foundation Young Food Ambassadors on this year's Residential or 'Resi' in York.

The Young Food Ambassadors are a diverse group of more than 40 activists from around the UK, many of whom have lived experience of food insecurity. As part of the Food Ambassador volunteer programme, they go to events, meet up with policy makers and do media interviews to campaign for better access to healthy food for every child in the UK.

Fayeth takes us to York with Jacob, Habiba and Hasan where to discuss what went on at this year's event.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here for the Newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Tracking Food Standards

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 11:00:42 GMT

Michelle Patel, Deputy Director of Analysis at the Food Standards Agency

The Food Standard Agency is the Government department that regulates for food safety and looks out for consumers in the food system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Michelle explains what it knows about people's concerns about food prices and food affordability, both for those in household food insecurity and for people who are not.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto, and here for the Newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Primary school meals: Who decides?

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 11:00:13 GMT

Dan Parker, CEO of Veg Power on how to encourage more kids to eat school meals.

As part of Veg Power's annual survey of 3000 parents of primary school aged children and their children, Dan's team asked what's going on at home that's driving decisions about the take up of school meals. And they found that at any given lunch time, 25 to 30% of the children who are entitled to a free school meal, choose not to have it. Dan tells us why and what needs to happen to ensure that every child is getting access to healthy food at school.

Click here for more information about the Veg Power survey, here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the Newsletter.

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Pod Bites: School Food Standards

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 11:00:28 GMT

This week, Myles Bremner, Chief Executive of Bremner and Co talks about the Food Standard Agency's recent report on a pilot scheme to monitor school food standards compliance.

Click here for more information, here for the Food Foundation manifesto and here for the FF Newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Scaling up community projects

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 11:00:28 GMT

On this week's Pod Bite, Dr Gemma Bridge, research fellow at the University of Leeds tells us about the scaling up and out place-based food initiatives project that a team from the University of Leeds has conducted in collaboration with the Food Foundation.

Place-based community led food initiatives include food banks, social supermarkets, community cafes and community supported food growing schemes and play crucial roles in developing community led place based food systems. They help local people access affordable and healthy food support, physical and mental well being through community activities and enhance financial resilience for employment opportunities. Listen out for more on this exciting initiative in collaboration with the Food Foundation coming soon to this podcast.

Click here for more information on the project, and here for the Food Foundation Manifesto

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Pod Bites: Families on the Breadline

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 11:00:58 GMT

Shona Goudie, policy and advocacy manager at the Food Foundation tells us about new data it published this week which shows just how difficult it is for families on a low income, specifically those with children, to afford a healthy diet.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto, and here for the Newsletter.

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Pod Bites: The King's Speech

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 11:00:16 GMT

Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at The Food Foundation analyses The King's Speech for the new Government's commitment to putting food at the centre of the health of the nation.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the Newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Feeding Bristol's Food Justice Fortnight

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 11:00:55 GMT

On this week's Pod Bite, Mali Evans, Head of Engagement and Advocacy at Feeding Bristol tell us about Food Justice Fortnight, its series of summer events to celebrate the city's communities and make space for important conversations about food.

Click here for more on Feeding Bristol's Food Justice Fortnight, here for the Food Foundation Manifesto, and here to sign up for the Food Foundation Newsletter.

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The First 100 Days

Fri, 05 Jul 2024 11:00:06 GMT

This week, Rebecca Tobi, Senior Business and Investor Engagement Manager at the Food Foundation hosts a special panel discussion with four representatives from food businesses and the investment community to discuss what they want and need from the first 100 days of a new government. This is, typically, a really interesting and critical time for new governments to set out their direction of travel when it comes to policy priorities and general intent.

Recorded before the General Election, the panel of Richard Hall, Vice President and General Secretary for the UK and Ireland at Danone, James Perry, co-founder and co-chair of Cook, Rachel Crossley, Head of Stewardship in Europe for BNP Paribas Asset Management, and Sophie Lawrence, Stewardship and Engagement Lead at Greenbank discuss how to face a dual public health and climate crises through action on the food system.

For further information, click on the links below:

https://foodfoundation.org.uk/news/lobbying-good-food-businesses-and-investors-share-their-vision-better-food-system

https://foodfoundation.org.uk/news/lobbying-good-why-we-need-regulation-level-playing-field-food-industry

https://foodfoundation.org.uk/news/lobbying-good-why-investors-should-be-lobbying-better-food-system

Click here for the Food Foundation's own Manifesto, and here to sign up for the Newsletter.

https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/nourishing-nation-mandatory-reporting-food-businesses-0

https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/power-and-accountability-evolving-landscape-corporate-reporting

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Pod Bites Election Special: The final countdown

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 11:00:13 GMT

Anna Taylor, Executive Director of the Food Foundation digs into the Labour and Green Party manifestos and assesses their commitment to fixing Britain's broken food system.

Click here for the Food Foundation's own Manifesto, and here to sign up for the Newsletter.

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Pod Bites Election Special: A Neglected Generation

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 11:00:48 GMT

In the third in a special series of Election Pod Bites, Shona Goudie, Policy and Advocacy Manager at The Food Foundation tells us about our latest report, A Neglected Generation.

From the reduction in height of 5 year-olds to the rise in obesity among 10-11 year-olds by 30%, to Type 2 diabetes among under 25s up 22%, we remind a nation about to vote of the shocking deterioration in children's health over the last decade.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here for the FF newsletter.

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Pod Bites: Election Special - The Manifestos

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:00:39 GMT

In the second of the Food Foundation's Election Special Pod Bites, Executive Director, Anna Taylor responds to the policy issues in the Lib Dem and Conservative manifestos as well as the relaunch of Labour's child health plans.

Head to the Food Foundation Manifesto to find more on what we need from the next Government to fix the broken food system.

Click here to sign up for the Food Foundation Newsletter

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Pod Bites: Election Special

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 11:00:38 GMT

In the first of this series of Election Special Pod Bites in which Anna Taylor, Executive Director at the Food Foundation, tells us about what's been happening in the world of politics and food since the general election campaign has kicked off, we hear her thoughts on the first leaders' TV debate.

Click here to read the Food Foundation Manifesto

You can also sign up to our newsletter to ensure you hear about our webinars and new areas of research.

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Broken Plate 2025: Looking ahead to a healthier Britain

Fri, 31 May 2024 11:00:02 GMT

This week, to kick start a series of Food Foundation analysis on the Election campaign, Lucy Upton, paediatric dietitian, feeding therapist and founder of The Children's Dietitian looks ahead to the 2025 food Foundation's Broken Plate report.

This annual flagship report reveals the health of our food system, its impact on our lives and the remedies we need to put in place. Dr Alice Wiseman, Director of Public Health for Newcastle and Gateshead, Baroness Joan Walmsley, chair of the House of Lords' Food, Diet and Obesity Committee, Food Foundation Food Ambassador, Dominic Watters and its chief executive, Anna Taylor look at the factors creating an increasingly obesogenic Britain.

Click here to read the Food Foundation Manifesto

You can also sign up to our newsletter to ensure you hear about our webinars and new areas of research.

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Pod Bites: The Kid's Food Guarantee, a year on

Fri, 24 May 2024 11:00:42 GMT

Rebecca Tobi, Senior Business and Investor Engagement Manager at the Food Foundation looks at the impact of the Kid's Food Guarantee, a roadmap of actions for retailers and a set of asks for Government, a year on.

Click here for more information on the Kid's Food Guarantee, and here for the Food Foundation's latest report on the packed lunches.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto

You can also sign up to our newsletter to ensure you hear about our webinars and new areas of research.

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Pod Bites: The MAZI Project on Dignity through Food

Fri, 17 May 2024 11:00:03 GMT

In this week's Pod Bite,Melanie Vaxevanakis, founder of the Mazi Project in Bristol tells us about the importance of choice and dignity within food provision for marginalised young people, and why we need a call for an overhaul of the food system.

Click here for more information on Mazi, and here for the Food Foundation manifesto.

You can also sign up to our newsletter to ensure you hear about our webinars and new areas of research.

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Pod Bites: Giving evidence in the House of Lords

Fri, 10 May 2024 11:00:03 GMT

On this week's Podbite, Kathleen Kerridge, one of the adult food ambassadors for the Food Foundation, reports back after giving evidence to the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee.

One of the questions she was asked by Baroness Rosie Boycott was how much she spends on food in a week. Here she breaks that down to show just how hard it is to feed a family healthily on a low income.

Click here for more information on the committee and here for the Food Foundation manifesto.

You can also sign up to our newsletter to ensure you hear about our webinars and new areas of research.

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Pod Bites: Veg Power - Helping children to eat more veg

Fri, 03 May 2024 11:00:38 GMT

In this week's Podbite, Veg Power's CEO, Dan Parker tells us about Simply Veg's new initiative to support families and kids in eating more vegetables, highlighting the challenges faced by parents. He says that the launch of a new e-learning platform which was developed with the involvement of nutritionists and child psychology experts, emphasizes the importance of personalized experiences in health education.

Click here for more information

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Children's Health and the Mayoral Elections

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 11:00:56 GMT

This week, ahead of the mayoral elections on May 2nd, Theo Michaels chef and author of Cypriana, looks at why children's health should be a priority for all the candidates, but particularly those in London.

Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation explains the link between poverty and mental health in the capital where one in five children between eight and 16 report mental health problems.

Kadra Abdinasir, Associate Director of Policy at the charity Centre for Mental Health unpacks the main issues affecting children in London

Ruth Fitzharris is the campaign assistant for Mums for Lungs and tells us why air pollution should be one of the key asks for the mayoral candidates.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here for more information on Nourishing the Nation.

You can also sign up to our newsletter to ensure you hear about our webinars and new areas of research.

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Pod Bites: Feed the Future comes to the West Midlands

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 11:00:52 GMT

In this week's Podbite, Leticija Petrovic, local food policy lead at the Food Foundation tells us about how the Feed the Future campaign initiated in 2020 by Marcus Rashford comes to West Midlands this month. Please add your voice to our campaign - it only takes two clicks of a button: https://bit.ly/3rlmvWK

Click here to read the Food Foundation Manifesto

You can also sign up to our newsletter to ensure you hear about our webinars and new areas of research.

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Pod Bites: The Nestle Resolution

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 11:00:19 GMT

On this week's Pod Bite, Holly Gabriel, nutritionist and campaign lead for consumer health at Share Action, tells us about the shareholder resolution that a coalition, including The Food Foundation is filing at Nestle to calls on the company to increase the amount of healthier food it sells.

Click here for more on the coalition behind the initiative, and here for the Food Foundation Manifesto.

You can also sign up to our newsletter to ensure you hear about our webinars and new areas of research.

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Pod Bites: Food Justice and the Role of the City

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 11:00:00 GMT

Stuart Gillespie, writer and consultant for The Food Foundation, tells us why we need cities to perform a radical overhaul of the food system to balance power and prioritise human and planetary health, rather than profit.

Stuart explains how The Food Foundation, Birmingham City Council, and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact came together in 2021 to create a global food justice pledge to encourage collaboration and collective working, empowering the voices of cities nationally and internationally.

Click here for more information and here for the Food Foundation Manifesto.

You can also sign up to our newsletter to ensure you hear about our webinars and new areas of research.

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Disability and Food Insecurity

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 10:01:15 GMT

This week, Danny McCubbin, founder and author of The Good Kitchen reports on the Food Foundation's latest survey on the increasing food insecurity faced by people with disabilities.

Food insecurity levels in the UK have reached unprecedented highs over the past few years, first in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and now continuing through the cost of living crisis. Disabled people have been particularly exposed to food insecurity, facing stark inequalities when it comes to accessing and affording the food that they need.

Shona Goudie, policy and advocacy manager at the Food Foundation, Dan White from Disabilities Rights UK, Simon Shaw, Co-Investigator, Food at Home, University of Sheffield and Sabine Goodwin from IFAN break down the stats to paint a devastating picture of life for many people living with disability in Broken Britain.

Click here for the Food Foundation's Manifesto

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Pod Bites: The Lib Dems and food policy

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 12:00:33 GMT

In this week's Pod Bites, Joss MacDonald, Public Affairs Lead at the Food Foundation, tells us about the Liberal Democrat Party's policies on food in the aftermath of the party's spring conference in York,

Click here for the Food Foundation's manifesto.

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Pod Bites: The Youth Select Committee

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 12:00:26 GMT

In this week's Pod Bite, 18 year-old, Dev Sharma, Food Foundation Young Food Ambassadors and chair of the UK Parliament Youth Select Committee on its very first inquiry into the Cost of Living crisis.

The Youth Select Committee is the first youth Oarliamentary inquiry of its kind into the cost of living with the same powers as any Parliamentary Select Committee. Dev explains what happened when it presented its findings from its report on the cost of living and its impact on young people's health and well being.

Click here for more on the Youth Select Committee, and here for the Food Foundation's Manifesto.

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Pod Bites: The spring Budget

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 12:00:27 GMT

Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation talks about the spring budget. Assessing its commitments to support public health, low income families and also to support people through the cost of living crisis, she finds a mixed bag and a number of missed opportunities.

Click here for more on the budget from Hannah and here for the Food Foundation's Manifesto.

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Pod Bites: Food Insecurity and the widening health divide

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:00:33 GMT

In this week's Pod Bites, Shona Goudie, Policy and Advocacy Manager at the Food Foundation, digs deep into the latest statistics on food insecurity. The Food Foundation report finds that families stuck in food insecurity are buying less fruit and veg than last year as UK’s health divide widens.

Click here for the Food Foundation Food Insecurity Tracker, and here for the Manifesto.

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Pod Bites: Generation Formula

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 12:00:30 GMT

This week, we hear more about how families face a range of barriers to feeding their infants, whether they breastfeed or formula feed. Following the investigation into infant formula prices carried out by the The Competition and Markets Authority, Vicky Sibson, Director at First Steps Nutrition, tells us how it can influence feeding decisions.

For more on The Food Foundation's report on formula prices and barriers to breastfeeding, click here. And for its Manifesto, click here

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The Barriers to Breastfeeding

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 12:00:38 GMT

Guest presenter, Gemma Ogston, author of The Healing Cookbook looks at the Food Foundation's second Early Years report exploring the barriers to breastfeeding.

The Food Foundation has just published this in-depth analysis revealing a flawed system in which parents face multiple barriers to provide babies with the basic nutrients needed for development before the age of two. It shows how policy failure leaves families struggling to provide babies with vital nutrients in early months of life.

Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation joins Adult Food Ambassador, TJ, Dayna Brackley from Bremner and Co, Sophie Riley, midwife at Plymouth University Hospital Trust, Vicky Sibson, director of First Steps Nutrition Trust and Alison Thewliss MP to examine why we need a national breastfeeding strategy.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto

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Pod Bites: The Times Health Commission

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 12:00:06 GMT

Jo Ralling, head of campaigns at the Food Foundation talks us through some of the week's big reports on about child health and how we can fix the NHS.

For more information on the The Times Commission, click here

As we head towards the next general election, the Food Foundation is calling on policymakers to recognise the central importance of the food system in shaping the nation's health and wealth. Click here for the Food Foundation manifesto, and make sure you subscribe to this podcast to keep up with the latest analysis on what makes healthy food really matter.

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Pod Bites: Eat Them to Defeat Them

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 12:00:00 GMT

In this week's Pod Bites, Dan Parker, Chief Executive of Veg Power tells us about Eat Them to Defeat Them 2024, the TV advertising campaign to get kids eating more veg.

As the media campaign kicks off again on Feb 17th, the schools programme follows with 637,000 children across the UK in over 2,500 primary and special schools joining in classroom activities and tasting events to make vegetables fun.

Click here for more information on Eat Them to Defeat Them, and here for the Food Foundation Manifesto

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The Peas Please Report

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 12:00:45 GMT

This week, Poppy O'Toole, Michelin-trained chef and author and content creator, known as Poppy Cooks, looks at the release of the final progress report from the Peas Please partnership.

Peas Please is a partnership campaign led by the Food Foundation with Nourish Scotland, Food Sense Wales and Food NI to make it easier for everyone in the UK to eat more vegetables. Funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, it's a joined up movement of veg advocates and veg cities who have made massive wins over the past four years.

Pete Ritchie from Nourish Scotland, Katie Palmer from Food Sense Wales and Michele Shirlow from Food NI assess the key highlights, while Gareth Mcanlis of Henderson Group explains how it feels to be a local food hero.

But the report shows that the amount of vegetables bought by households in the UK has fallen to its lowest level in 50 years. This highlights the impact the cost of living crisis is having on low-income families who are struggling to afford healthier options.

Click for the Courgette Pilot from Food Sense Wales and the Food Foundation's Manifesto

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Pod Bites: Labour's Child Action Plan

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 12:00:47 GMT

In this week’s Pod Bites, Anna Taylor, Executive Director of the Food Foundation talks us through the Labour Party's seven point Child Health Action Plan which was announced last week.

Click here for the Children’s Right2Food dashboard, and here for the Food Foundation Manifesto.

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Pod Bites: The Oxford Real Farming Conference

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 12:00:00 GMT

On this week's Podbite, Leticija Petrovic, local food policy lead at Food Foundation reports back from last week's 15th annual Oxford Real Farming conference.

Leticija led a Food Foundation hosted session which explored the leadership that local authorities can have in making food and policy change, and shared the findings of its work with Birmingham City Council, Kent University and a number of schools.

Click here for more information on The Oxford Real Farming Conference and here for the Food Foundation Manifesto.

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Pod Bites: Philip Lymbery's New Year Message

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 12:00:58 GMT

Philip Lymbery, the Chief Executive of Compassion in World Farming, the leading international farmed animal welfare environmental organisation gives us his New Year message. He looks at how far we have come as a food movement in terms of climate, food justice and animal welfare, and predicts that a future royal banquet will include cultivated meat from stem cells.

Click here for more from Compassion in World Farming and here for the Food Foundation Manifesto.

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2023: The Youth View

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 12:00:17 GMT

Laiba, Dev and Jani are just some of the Young Food Ambassadors for the Food Foundation who report from the front line of food insecurity and campaign for the right to food for every child in the UK. The Sheila McKechnie (SMK) Foundation awarded the YFAs second place in the ‘Young Campaigner Award’ category for our Feed the Future campaign. It recognises how much they have achieved during the campaign, which calls on the Government to extend school meals eligibility in response to evidence that 800,000 children living in poverty in England don’t get a Free School Meal.

The Young Food Ambassadors helped to plan our ‘Superpowers of Free School Meals’ event in Westminster for MPs, performing a spoken word piece to an audience of over 200 people. They also worked with The Food Foundation to design a social media campaign and wrote to their MPs. This campaign contributed to London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s commitment to extend Free School Meals to an additional 270,000 children for one year from September 2023 in London. While the campaign continues as so many children in poverty are still miss out on Free School Meals, we're grateful to the Sheila McKechnie Foundation for recognising the Young Food Ambassadors hard work and all they have achieved so far.

Here Laiba, Dev and Jani look back on the year, remembering the residential where they planned the Feed the Future campaign and Laiba's lunch with Holly Lynch MP.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto.

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Pod Bites: View from the Food Club

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 12:00:02 GMT

As we approach the end of 2023, Natasha Ricketts, founder of the Evelyn Community Food Store, former Mayoress of Lewisham and friend of the Food Foundation Podcast looks back on the year.

We first met Natasha in Lockdown and found how people joining a community food store found so much more than food boxes. Now, she finds an unprecedented rise in membership and tells us how the food store has become a portal for the most needy to find help.

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Pod Bites: COP28

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 12:00:17 GMT

On this week's Pod Bites, Sarah Buszard, Responsible Investor Engagement lead for the Food Foundation is just back from COP28 in Dubai with a 10-minute briefing from a food campaigner's point of view.

She tells us how and why food was featured much more prominently on the agenda than ever before, why institutional investors are so interested in food systems transformation, and news of a global commitment to address climate-related health impacts and align climate and health in policy processes.

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto.

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Pod Bites: The Right to Food University

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 12:00:32 GMT

In this week's Pod Bites, Philip Pothen, Director of Engagement at the University of Kent tells us about The Right to Food University.

Inspired by a visit to the University by UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri Philip tells us how he established a Right to Food University. Bringing together Kent's research and innovation, its links with businesses, teaching, curriculum and volunteer power, its students and staff, this is about a series of initiatives exploring how to deliver a fairer, more sustainable and more affordable food system.

Click here for more information on The Food Foundation's work with The Right to Food University at Kent

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SOFI: Why the food industry is the gatekeeper to our dietary health

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 12:00:43 GMT

This week, guest presenter, Leyla Kazim of Radio 4's The Food Programme looks at the Food Foundation's 2023 State of the Nation's Food Industry Report - or SOFI - on the retailers and out of home businesses leading the way towards a healthier and more sustainable diet.

With Linus Pardoe of the Good Food Institute, Ita McMahon of Castlefield Sustainable Investing, Stephanie Sargent, youth leader of Act4Food, Ryan Holmes, Culinary Director, Business and Industry at Compass Group UK & Ireland, and Chloe MacKean, Business Engagement Manager at the Food Foundation.

Click here for the Food Foundation manifesto

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Pod Bites: A Letter to Health Minister Andrea Leadsom

Fri, 24 Nov 2023 12:00:43 GMT

This week, Vera Zakharov, the local action coordinator for Sustain on why families with no recourse to public funds deserve access to Healthy Start, a vital nutritional safety net for their youngest children.

As a letter from 148 signatories lands this week on the desk of the new Minister for Primary Care and Public Health, Andrea Leadsom outlining an immediate call for a consultation on extending Healthy Start to all low income families with no recourse to public funds, Vera explains why it's essential for the health of the nation.

Click here to read the letter and here for the survey

Click here for the Food Foundation manifesto.

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Pod Bites: Chefs in Schools on extending Free School Meals

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 12:00:08 GMT

Danielle Glavin, Head of Communications at Chefs in Schools on the result of a survey which found that a third of families can no longer afford hot school lunches

Food and children’s charities are calling on the Government to urgently expand eligibility for free school meals after new research found that a third of families can no longer afford hot school lunches. The polling of parents across England, carried out by Survation for Chefs in Schools also found that 41% were providing less nutritious packed lunches for children because of rising food prices.

The research also reveals:

● 56% of parents are struggling to make ends meet

● 58% feel the current Free School Meals system, where eligibility varies

depending on location and age, is unfair

● 83% of parents wanted eligibility expanded

● 62% said they would be more likely to vote for a party which promised to

expand free school meals

Click here for more information on the survey

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto

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Broken Plate 5: Yoghurt and cereals and children's dental health

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 12:00:24 GMT

In the fifth episode of this series on the broken plate, the Food Foundation's annual report on the state of the nation's food system, Dominique Woolf, author of Dominique's Kitchen and winner of The Jamie Oliver Great Cookbook Challenge on Channel Four looks at the impact of sugary cereals and yoghurts clearly marketed at children on their dental health.

Click here for the full Broken Plate report

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto

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Pod Bites: The affordability of healthy children's lunches

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 12:00:43 GMT

In this Pod Bite, Shona Goudie, policy and advocacy manager at the Food Foundation brings us up to speed on the Kids Guarantee Scheme and what supermarkets are doing to provide the 900,000 school children in the UK living in food insecurity with a healthy packed lunch.

Click here for the Food Foundation manifesto.

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Pod Bites: The National Conversation About Food

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 11:00:32 GMT

Sue Pritchard, chief executive at the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission on the National Conversation About Food.

Sue explains the ideas behind this project which gathers citizens to understand what people really think about food and talk about how we can fix food, fix the planet and fix our health.

Click here for more information on FFCC's work and here for the Food Foundation's manifesto.

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Broken Plate: Fast food on the high street

Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:25:35 GMT

In the 4th episode of this 12-part series on the Food Foundation's annual Broken Plate report on the state of the nation's food system, guest presenter, TV chef and author of Cook Clever, Shivi Ramoutar tells us about the rise in fast food outlets in the UK.

Leticija Petrovic, City Food Policy lead at The Food Foundation tells us how Birmingham City Council, one of those deprived areas, is transforming its local food system. Justin Varney, Director of Public Health and Birmingham City Council and Vicky Hemming, Head of Food at its Active Wellbeing Society talk about joined-up thinking in creating a healthy high street. And Fran Bernhardt, Children's Food Campaign Coordinator at Sustain reports on some of the positive initiatives taken by city councils all over the country.

Click here for the Food Foundation manifesto.

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Pod Bites: How to change behaviour

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 08:46:32 GMT

Sarah Buszard, responsible investor engagement lead for the Food Foundation on our recently released briefing that looks at how important educational and information provision interventions are as tools for improving dietary health.

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Bonus episode: China's food revolution

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 08:00:41 GMT

Chief Executive of the Food Foundation, Anna Taylor visits Chengdu, capital of the Sichuan Province in China where she was invited to share experiences from the UK on making food environments more healthy. As in the UK, diets dominated by highly processed products are driving the rise in childhood overweight and obesity in China, and Anna was keen to learn about the challenges the Chinese are facing.

In the company of Roland Kupka, UNICEF's regional nutrition advisor for East Asia Pacific, Fiona Watson, nutrition strategy consultant, China country office and Professor Kathryn Backholer co-director of the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition at Deakin University in Melbourne, they explore some of the digital initiatives that are transforming the city's food experience. They also find out what's happening in the city schools, and Nini’s Food Education Centre right in the heart of the city with its own forest food garden for children.

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Pod Bites: The Birmingham Food Revolution

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Sarah Pullen, lead on the food system team within the public health department at Birmingham City Council, tells us about the Birmingham Food Revolution and the importance of this co-creative strategy for our cities food system transformation.

Find out more about the Birmingham Food strategy here

Find out more about the upcoming online events here

Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto

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The Broken Plate: The Obesity Epidemic

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:00:09 GMT

This week, in the third of this 12-part series on the Food Foundation’s annual Broken Plate report on the state of the nation's food system, we're talking about the UK’s obesity epidemic.

Guest presenter, Dr. Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, MasterChef winner, gastroenterologist and author of The Sunday Times bestseller, The Kitchen Prescription sees the impact of obesity and overweight on her patients every day in her NHS clinic. With Kat Jenner from the Obesity Health Alliance, GP, Dr Pandora Frost, Mimi, one of the Food Foundation's Young Food Ambassadors and Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation, she explores one of this year’s Broken Plate report's key metrics, how the rising prevalence of obesity in children across England and Scotland, who are living in the most deprived fifth of the population, is posing a serious threat to that vision.

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Pod Bites: Global Food Justice Toolkit launched

Fri, 22 Sep 2023 11:00:55 GMT

This week, ahead of the launch Leiticija Petrovic, Food Policy lead at The Food Foundation tells us about a new food justice toolkit developed by Birmingham City Council.

It is designed to help cities assess their own councils' strengths and weaknesses, to identify stakeholders to engage with to progress action, and potential interventions to work towards more equitable and just food system.

For more information of the Birmingham Food Futures Conference last year, click here

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Pod Bites: Recipe for Change

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 11:00:19 GMT

In the latest Pod Bites episode from the Food Foundation podcast, Kate Howard, Children's Food Campaign Coordinator at Sustain introduces us to Recipe for Change. a campaign calling for an industry levy to make food healthier.

Click on the links to find out more and how to get involved, and check in at Food Foundation for the bigger picture on why we need to make healthy food accessible to all children in the UK

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Pod Bites: Free School Meals roll-out across London

Fri, 08 Sep 2023 11:00:09 GMT

Zoe McIntyre, advocacy manager and children's food at the Food Foundation explains why it's such an exciting week across London as the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, rolls out Free School Meals to all primary school children in the capitol.

Regardless of background, 287,000 additional children will be benefiting from a free school meal for a whole year as part of the Mayor's intervention in the cost of living crisis. Zoe explains why the Food Foundation hopes it's just a start in the fight for all children in the UK to have access to healthy food

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Bonus Episode: Jimi Famurewa and our award-winning youth activist

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 11:00:16 GMT

As the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan rolls out Free School Meals for every primary school child across the capital next week, journalist, brodcaster, author and food critic, Jimi Famurewa catches up with Saff, one of the Food Foundation’s Young Food Ambassadors.

She has been campaigning about the importance of Free School Meals, and here Jimi and Bite Back's Luke Hall celebrate Saff's win as Youth Activist of the Year at the Good School Food Awards at Jamie Oliver HQ.

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Pod Bites: 900,000 missing out on Free School Meals

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 11:00:57 GMT

This week, Kate Anstey, Head of Education Policy at Child Poverty Action Group tells us about the limitations and the current free school meals policy. CPAG's most recent figures find that 900,000 children in England don't currently qualify for a free school meal, and Kate explains why that matters.

Click here for more information on CPAG's Imagine campaign

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Pod Bites: Reversing health inequalities

Fri, 18 Aug 2023 11:00:38 GMT

Sarah Lawson, engagement and programme manager at Health Equals at the Health Foundation on its campaign for better health opportunities in the UK.

Health Equals was born out of the need to rebuild foundations to improve life expectancy and reverse health inequalities in the UK. Here Sarah talks about the work it does with The Food Foundation and why it matters.

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Pod Bites: The EFRA report on Food Security

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 11:00:57 GMT

Hannah Brinsden head of policy and advocacy at The Food Foundation digs into the recent report from EFRA, the Government's committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Focussing on food security, it comes at a critical time when food inflation is at 17% and food prices have increased by up to 25% in the last year, according to Food Foundation figures.

To read more on the report, click here

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The Broken Plate: The marketing of toddler snacks

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 11:00:23 GMT

In the second of this 12 part series on the state of the nation's food system, we're talking about the marketing of baby and toddler snacks.

Dominique Woolf, author of Dominique's Kitchen and winner of the Jamie Oliver Great Cookbook Challenge on Channel Four unpack one of the key findings of the Food Foundation's flagship Broken Plate report.

With expert analysis from Dr Kawther Hashem from Action on Sugar, Camilla Kingdon, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Zoe McIntyre of the Food Foundation, MP, Alison Thewliss and first time mums, Sara and TJ.

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Pod Bites: Food and Fun

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 11:00:24 GMT

After last week’s announcement by the Welsh government to end free school holiday meal vouchers, Katie Palmer from Food Sense Wales tells us about Food for Fun, an initiative which is being rolled out out across the whole of Wales as part of a £4.85 million annual programme.

Click here for more information.

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Pod Bites: Food Insecurity Update

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 11:00:17 GMT

Shona Goudie, Senior Policy and Advocacy officer at the Food Foundation explains the latest findings of a new survey on food insecurity, and this week's new data on food inflation.

An online survey of 10,814 adults in the United Kingdom commissioned by The Food Foundation and conducted between 31st January to 3rd February 2023 by YouGov Plc (12th in series) found that 17% of households experienced food insecurity in June this year, which affects an estimated nine million adults and four million children.

Shona unpacks the complex reasons for this from the war in Ukraine to Brexit in a fascinating exploration of the impact of the current food system on health and mental well-being among the most vulnerable people in Britain.

Click here to read the full report.

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The Broken Plate Report 2023

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 11:00:35 GMT

In the first of this 12-part monthly series of The Broken Plate, we examine the findings of the Food Foundation's annual report on the state of the nation's food system.

Guest presenter, Dr Saliha Mahmood-Ahmed, MasterChef winner, gastroenterologist and author of The Sunday Times bestseller, The Kitchen Prescription, explores the importance of the food system in shaping the nation's health and wealth with Food Foundation trustee, Laura Sandys, MPs Peter Aldous and Daniel Zeichner, Breadline Voices Dan White and Dominic Watters, Dr Kawther Hashem from Action in Sugar and the report's authors, Shona Goudie.

To get involved with the Food Foundation, click here

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Quick Bites: The Veg Advocates

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 11:00:00 GMT

In this week's Quick Bites, Tilda Ferree, Project Officer at the Food Foundation takes us behind the scenes of the Involving Citizens in Food Activism report.

The veg advocate programme was launched in March 2020 as part of the Peas Please programme, its mission: to make it easier for everybody in the UK to eat more veg. Working with agents for change, this is another partnership initiative in which lived experience is the key to understanding how to change the food system for the sake of our health, the health of the planet and the economy.

Click here for Peas Please and here for more information on veg advocates.

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Quick Bites: The voice of the young food ambassador

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 11:00:06 GMT

The Food Foundation launches its Broken Plate report this week, its annual State of the Nation assessment on the British food system. And once again, it reveals that our children are still not getting enough access to healthy, nutritious food.

In this week's Quick Bites, Young Food Ambassador, Saffron Steddall explains why when she was just 14 and living in food poverty herself, she joined the Food Foundation to champion the rights of every child in the UK to eat a healthy meal every day.

Click here to find more about the Right2Food campaign. And if you'd like to get involved with the Food Foundation's ambassador programme, click here

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Quick Bites: Analysing supermarket multi-buy offers on junk food

Fri, 23 Jun 2023 11:00:52 GMT

Hannah Brinsden, head of policy and advocacy at the Food Foundation explains why the Government is wrong to withdraw its promise to introduce restrictions on supermarket multibuy offers until 2025 because of the cost of living crisis. She says that it is precisely because times are tough that we must improve access to healthy foods NOW.

For more information please click here to read our publications, press releases and blogs.

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Quick Bites: Why are so many families missing out on Healthy Start?

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 11:00:33 GMT

Labour MP for South Shields, Emma Lewes-Buck tells us why she introduced a Bill for a Healthy Start scheme this week to encourage auto-enrolment to the Government initiative.

The NHS Healthy Start scheme is considered a lifeline for pregnant women and families with young children, providing vital access to fruit and vegetables, milk and vitamins. But more than 200,000 babies and young children in England are missing out on this nutritional safety net, with uptake rates are as low as 50% in some areas. Food poverty levels have almost doubled since last year and rising food inflation has particularly impacted products such as milk, vegetables, and baby formula.

It is vital the Government acts now to ensure every child has access to healthy, nutritious meals. That's why the Food Foundation joined has joined a cross-party group of MPs and health campaigners from 27 organisations in writing to Health Secretary Steve Barclay urging him to automatically enrol all families to Healthy Start.

For more information and to read Emma's letter to the Secretary of State, click here

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Quick Bites: Kids Food Guarantee Dashboard launch

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 11:00:00 GMT

In this episode of Quick Bites, the Food Foundation's series of thoughts and snap analyses of news events, Rebecca Tobi, senior business and investor Engagement Manager at the Food Foundation shares the launch of this week's Kids Food Guarantee dashboard, our set of asks and actions that we'd like to see retailers, and manufacturers taking to support families through the cost of living crisis.

Click here for the Kids Food Guarantee, and here for Food Foundation's Quick Bites webinars on our YouTube channel.

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Volunteers’ Week 2023: Tales from the frontline of food insecurity.

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 11:00:44 GMT

It's volunteer week at the Food Foundation, and chef, food writer and Bake Off winner, Chetna Makan introduces us to some of the voices from the frontline of food insecurity.

The Food Foundation looks for solutions to the growing challenges facing the UK's food system, and presents them to government and private sector. But perhaps its most important contribution is its team of ambassadors, young people and adults with lived experience of many of the issues it campaigns about.

We meet the core bloggers on Breadline Voices, Dan White, Dominic Watters and Kathleen Kerridge and learn how the ambassador programme at the Food Foundation has helped them to develop their presenting skills and speak directly to the people who can change policy at the very top of the food chain.

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Quick Bites: the campaign for affordable infant formula

Fri, 26 May 2023 11:00:18 GMT

In this episode of Quick Bites, the Food Foundation's series of thoughts and snap analyses of news events, Vicky Sibson, director of First Steps Nutrition Trust tells us about the campaign for regulation on the cost of infant formula.

First Steps is working with the Food Foundation to improve access to better food and nutrition from preconception to age five. Vicky explains why in the UK's formula feeding culture we need safe and appropriate access to formula, and to make sure that it is available to the most vulnerable in our society.

Click here for the Kids Food Guarantee, and here for Food Foundation's Quick Bites webinars on our YouTube channel.

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Quick Bites: The first ever Children's Food Summit

Fri, 19 May 2023 11:00:00 GMT

Elena Vacca, Youth Engagement Coordinator at the Food Foundation takes us to the first ever Children's Food Summit in Leeds on 16 May 2023. This in-person event from Sustain's Children's Food Campaign coalition brought together leading voices from the world of children’s food and the opportunity to shape future plans with other change-makers.

Click here for more information on the work the Food Foundation does on children's right to food.

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How to Change Policy

Fri, 12 May 2023 11:00:33 GMT

This week, guest presenter, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall looks at how to make a case for policy change through the compelling stories of lived experience of poverty.

Charities like the Food Foundation try to find solutions to the growing challenges facing the UK food system and present them to government and the private sector. But the work has to have impact. Marcus Rashford, Dame Emma Thompson and the young food ambassadors from the Food Foundation tell it how it is, while Dolly Theis of Dolitics argues that a policy merry go round makes any real and lasting change unlikely to be implemented.

If you have lived experience of food insecurity and want to get involved in advocacy, do get in touch with the Food Foundation. Just click here to contact the Food Foundation team.

Click here for more information on Tackling the Cost of Food Crisis presentation at Parliament and here for more on Sustain's Healthy Start campaign.

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Quick Bites: Campaigning with Impact

Thu, 04 May 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Sofia Parente, head of Local Action at Sustain, looks at how campaigns can affect Government policy.

She tells us about an open letter to Government from a coalition of charities and NGOs, including The Food Foundation,about Healthy Start which led to an update in Government policy.

Click for more information on Veg Cities and The Food Foundation’s campaign for better access to Healthy Start.

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Quick Bites: They Know We're Here, But They Don't See Us

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 11:00:08 GMT

Shona Goudie, policy and advocacy officer at The Food Foundation tells us about an event at The Churchill Room in The House of Commons this week which brings new stories from the front line of food poverty.

Co-hosted by Which? and chaired by Radio 4 Food Programme presenter Sheila Dillon, the audience heard new findings on the availability of budget range options to support a healthy diet across different stores and how supermarkets can help. The Food Foundation talked about its new Kids Food Guarantee with some of its Food Ambassadors telling MPs how the cost of living crisis is impacting people’s lives

Here, Shona tells us about the launch of 'They Know We're Here, But They Don't See Us', a new short film by The Food Foundation at the event which explores parents’ experiences of feeding their families during the cost of living crisis. She talks about its impact on an audience of NGOs, supermarkets and MPs, and the Food Foundation's suggestions of how to change the food story in Britain.

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Quick Bites: Growing Our Five a Day

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 11:00:03 GMT

Alice English, project manager at The Food Foundation is just back from the Houses of Parliament where she and the team have been asking growers, NGOs and MPs how we can boost fruit and vegetable production and consumption in the UK.

As the Government develops its new Horticulture Strategy for England, The Food Foundation and SHEFs global research consortium have been analysing what mix of policies might support greater consumption and production of fruit and vegetables. Alice reflects on how the event went, what she took away and where we go from here.

Click here for the link to the Food Foundation briefings Alice mentions, and here for episode 10 of The Food Foundation podcast on why we urgently need a horticultural strategy.

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Quick Bites: Fix Our Food

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 12:00:41 GMT

Dr Annie Connolly, Research and Engagement Lead at the Food Foundation, introduces us to Fix our Food, a project aiming to transform the food system in Yorkshire. As part of its work, a ground-breaking research and transformational programme, being led by the Food Foundation's Young Food Ambassadors, is currently investigating access to healthy and sustainable options for children who receive Free School Meals.

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Happy Birthday Sugar Tax

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:04:40 GMT

This week, we're celebrating five years of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, better known as the Sugar Tax.

Introduced on April 6th 2018, the tax on the production and import of soft drinks that contain added sugar has been a win:win for industry and consumers, and the result of years of campaigning from stakeholders across the sector and support from MPs from the political spectrum.

Dr Rupy Aujla, author and host of the Doctor's Kitchen books and podcast, and his latest book, Dr. Rupy Cooks is our guest presenter. He joins Isabel Hughes from The Food Foundation , Peter Harding, Chief Executive Officer for Suntory Beverage & Food Europe, Katherine Jenner of the Obesity Health Alliance and Dr Paul McArdle and Jamie Oliver to explore why it was such a turning point in the campaign for access to a healthy diet for everyone in the UK.

For more information on the Sugar Tax, click here

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Quick Bites: Say YES to School Food for All

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 12:00:08 GMT

Barbara Crowther from Sustain, the Alliance for Food and Farming considers how we can create a world where all children can have a healthy school meal without barriers or stigma.

Sustain's network of over 100 Food farming, health education, and schools groups is working to create a better food environment for children to grow up in, to learn, to eat healthily and be healthy. Barbara introduces its campaign Say YES to School Food For All which, with a group of children, imagines what school could be like if we treated other parts of the school day like we treat school food.

Quick here for The Food Foundation's Quick Bites webinar series

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Quick Bites: Tracking food insecurity in the UK

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:00:00 GMT

In the second of the Food Foundation Podcast’s Quick Bites, its series of thoughts and snap analyses on key news events, we’re visiting FF HQ to meet more of the team.

Shona Goudie is the Senior Policy and Advocacy officer at the Food Foundation which has been tracking levels of food insecurity in the UK since the start of the pandemic. With today's update on the Food Insecurity Tracker, Shona paints a picture of how it's affecting Britain.

Click here for the Food Foundation's series of Quick Bites webinars on YouTube.

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Quick Bites: The Budget

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 17:00:27 GMT

In the first of the Food Foundation Podcast’s Quick Bites, its series of thoughts and snap analyses on key news events, we’re talking about the Budget.

Zoe McIntyre is the project manager for Children's Right2Food, the Food Foundation’s nationwide initiative to ensure every child in the UK can access and afford good food. She tells us why it matters that 800,000 children living in poverty, who continue to miss out on free school meals have not been given any airtime in today's budget.

Click here for more information on the Food Foundation and here for its series of webinars on YouTube.

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Why do we urgently need a horticulture strategy?

Fri, 10 Mar 2023 13:00:23 GMT

This week, guest presenter, food writer, chef, founder of Wahaca restaurants, and trustee of Chefs in Schools, Thomasina Miers asks what opportunities the current fruit and veg shortages could offer to build resilience into our broken food system in the UK.

The Food Foundation has recently published a series of briefings in collaboration with a team of researchers from the Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS) consortium. They explore the opportunities of growing and eating more fruit and veg in the UK and its impact on our health, the environment and our food security.

We hear from Ali Capper, chair of British Apples and Pears, Guy Singh-Watson of Riverford Organics. Martin Emmett, chair of the National Farmer's Union's Horticultural and Potatoes Board, James Woodward from Sustain and Anna Taylor, the Food Foundation's executive director.

For more information on the work The Food Foundation does with SHEFS, click here

For The Food Foundation's snap analysis Quick Bites series on YouTube, click here

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Can investors help fix our broken food system?

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 06:00:50 GMT

This week, Sophie Lawrence, Stewardship and Engagement Lead at Rathbone Greenbank Investments is our guest presenter. She was one of the guests who spoke at The Food Foundation’s Investor Summit, Putting Money on the Menu, which was the first of its kind to explore how the investment community can transform the UK food system.

Following the UN Food Systems Summit and the release of the National Food Strategy in 2021, an Investor Coalition on Food Policy was created, initially set up by Rathbone Greenbank, with support from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation and the Food Foundation. The Coalition, which now represents over 20 investors with over £6 trillion in assets under management is focused on the UK to begin with and exists to harness the power of the investment community to engage with policymakers on food policy.

Sophie finds out what investors could mean to the future of the food system, with Tim Benton from the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House, Jessica Attard from ShareAction, Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl, Secretary-General at the Vegetarian Society of Denmark and Director of Policy Initiatives at the International Vegetarian Union, Morten Fenger of Organic Plant Protein in Denmark and Stuart Lendrum, head of product and process at Iceland.

To find out more about the Coalition, click here

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Maternal Diet and Obesity

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 06:00:38 GMT

This week, Melissa Hemsley, food writer, chef and sustainability champion, joins the Food Foundation podcast to look at the factors that can stop women getting healthy food when they're pregnant and when they're planning to be.

The Food Foundation's latest report Preconception, Pregnancy and Healthy Weight in Childhood shows how much a child’s health is influenced before conception, in the womb, and how a child is predisposed to obesity if their parents, especially their mother is living with obesity. We meet mums and food workers from around the country who describe what it's like to try to feed your unborn and newborn child when transport and the cost of living crisis makes access and affordability just two of the biggest deterrents to a healthy diet.

Nutritionist and one of the authors of the report, Jenny Rosborough outlines its main findings, while Jeni Meadows of the Food Justice Partnership at Lancaster City Council, Lucy Jackman of Feeding Bristol and Natasha Ricketts from the Evelyn Community Centre in Lewisham introduce us to some of the mums who need the most help.

Check out the report here which urges Government to do more to address health inequalities and improve the food environment, particularly for families and parents on a low income. Rates of overweight and obesity in pregnant women increase as the level of deprivation increases. Women living in the most deprived areas are more likely to be underweight or are living with obesity.

The report draws attention to the fact that, while Government has acknowledged the need to reduce levels of childhood obesity, more than 1 fifth of children aged four and five start school in England with overweight or obesity (22.2%). These rates are more than twice as high in children living in the most deprived areas compared to the least.

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A Hostile Environment: An asylum seeker's Christmas

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 06:00:32 GMT

In this episode, we’re at the front line of food insecurity as we visit some of the food banks feeding migrants and asylum seekers who don’t have recourse to public funds this Christmas.

We’re looking at the key findings of a new report by researchers at the University of Hertfordshire and commissioned by the Food Foundation. It shows a pretty bleak Christmas for over a million migrants and asylum seekers waiting for their legal status to be approved.

The Food Foundation wants the Healthy Start food voucher scheme to be made permanent, and to actively promote access to it among families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF)

We want the Government to provide local authorities with the resources they need to ensure families with no recourse to public funds to get the support they need. And that includes accommodation with adequate kitchen and cooking facilities for asylum seekers. And we want the govt to collect data to establish real levels of food insecurity among families and individuals with NRPF.

Listen to why it matters with Claire Thompson at University of Hertfordshire, Ray Woolford from We Care at Kath's Place, Juliet Sekitoleko at Brighton Minority and Ethnic Community Partnership

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Feed the Future

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 06:00:36 GMT

This week, Dev looks back at the Food Foundation's Feed the Future event which promoted the super powers of free school meals to a hall full of MPs, campaigners and celebrity chefs.

800,000 children live in poverty in the UK, but because they’re not poor enough, they’re not entitled to free school meals. The threshold is just £7400 per household after benefits, yet expanding free school meals to all children from households who get Universal Credit would reach all these children in poverty.

As the influencer guests sat down for a Chefs in School dinner served by Tom Kerridge and Melissa Hemsley, and with young people who’ve experienced first-hand just how important free school meals are, the chat was enlightening for everyone.

Write to your MP in seconds to ask for free schools for all children who need it by clicking on this link

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The State of the Nation

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 08:50:44 GMT

Accompanying the publication this week of the Food Foundation's annual State of the Nation report, we look at how the Out of Home sector is woefully behind in setting health targets, and providing healthier food options for the vast number of people - including children - who eat out regularly.

Presented by Food Foundation young food ambassador, Saf, we hear from Sainsbury's, Eating Better and the Soil Association about why mandatory reporting on access to healthy and affordable food when we're out and about is so important.

For full details of the report, click here

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Food Futures: How Sustainable Cities Could Save People and Planet

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 05:00:16 GMT

In this episode, Yumna, one of our young food ambassadors takes us to her home town of Birmingham and the Commonwealth Food Futures 2022 conference where 20 cities around the world showcase their plans to transform the food system.

Yumna speaks to Dr David Nabarro, co-leader of the United Nation's Global Crisis Response Group, nurse, midwife, activist and the first female Foreign Minister of Somaliland from 2003 to 2006, Dr Edna Adan Ismail and Dr Justin Varney from Birmingham City Council. We hear from people leading change in thinking and practice from Malawi to Gujerat and Namibia, while Leyla Kazim from BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme who was hosting the day reflects on how much she's learned.

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Cooking and Growing in Early Years Settings

Tue, 02 Aug 2022 06:00:08 GMT

This week, sisters Laiba and Rushda, two of the Food Foundation's newest young ambassadors, report on how learning to cook, eating fresh food and growing it in nursery and pre-school gardens could help to transform our food culture and the nation’s health.

At Crookfur Family Centre in Newton Mearns, near Glasgow, they find how kids learn to play with broccoli trees in the dinosaur sand pit, run a pretend grocer’s shop, create art projects with vegetables and sing vegetable songs as part of a Nourish Scotland and Peas Please pilot. And at Maple Tree nursery and pre-school in Walsall, Laiba and Rushda find out how the Soil Association's Food for Life programme has created a food-centred environment for the whole family.

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Good Food Bill: how to future-proof food insecurity

Fri, 27 May 2022 05:00:36 GMT

This week, Jani looks at how a Good Food Bill could create a more resilient system, feeding people better and future-proofing food insecurity in the UK as we face a massive rise in the cost of living, food shortages, energy hikes and climate change. The waters are getting very choppy for all of us. But for some of the most vulnerable, it's really scary.

Isabel Hughes from The Food Foundation and Pete Ritchie of Nourish Scotland explore what a Good Food Bill could do for the most vulnerable. Mum of four, Kathleen, and Jani and her uni house mates report from the front line of food insecurity.

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Levelling Up: the view from the streets of Barrow

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 05:00:30 GMT

This week, we’re looking at Levelling Up, the Government's plan to equal out the differences between north and south to help towns recover from decades of poverty. Asha, one of the Food Foundation's teenage ambassadors, finds out what that means in her home town of Barrow-in-Furness on the North West coast.

Once known as the Chicago of England, Barrow was the largest iron and steel producer in the world and is still an important shipyard. Asha finds out what the issues are, and finds some inspiring projects already being supported by local government. Could the closed down shops in hollowed out high streets become food hubs in a new vision of food as central to community life?

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COP26: the youth view

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 06:00:23 GMT

Food Foundation ambassador, Ryan McShane and Act4Food Act4Change youth leader, Dara Karakolis present this special episode of Right2Food from COP26. With roving reporters, Dev, Bernis and Yumna joining them to bring the young person's view from Glasgow, they explain why it's so important that food and farming is on the climate change agenda.

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Free School Meals and why they matter

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 05:00:40 GMT

In this episode, Food Foundation ambassadors Fayeth and Beth explore the stigma and availability of healthy options in free school meals, and the trail blazing example set by Nourish Scotland and the Scottish government.

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Holiday Activities and Food Programme

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 05:07:03 GMT

This week, Beth, one of the Food Foundation's teenage ambassadors, takes us back to the heady days of summer when holiday activity programmes funded by the Government gave so many kids a chance to get at least one good meal a day. A host of parents, teachers and play scheme leaders, including the award winning Abraham Moss Warriors, explain why it's vital that the Holiday Activities and Food Programme continues to support families in need.

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Valley Fest

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 05:00:54 GMT

Join Asha and the Food Foundation's young food advocates as they camp out for a weekend of growth, learning and creativity at Valley Fest in Somerset. As they develop their understanding of food system transformation and their advocacy and campaigning skills in a fun and engaging environment, they're inspired by business leaders, campaigners, politicians, and policy makers, as well as young food advocates, activists, artists and entrepreneurs.

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Special - National Food Strategy Youth Consultation

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 23:01:42 GMT

The Food Foundation spoke to 426 young people across the country in September and October 2020 to find out their views and priorities for the future of food in Britain.

Twenty of those young people joined together on Zoom to dive deeper into food systems and refine their ideas and priorities. They then presented their policy proposals to invited decision makers. The report and their recommendations fed directly into the National Food Strategy.

In the second episode, our group of twenty debate some tough food issues, before preparing and presenting their policy proposals to invited guests from government, business and the National Food Strategy team.

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Special - National Food Strategy Youth Consultation

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 23:01:12 GMT

The Food Foundation spoke to 426 young people across the country in September and October 2020 to find out their views and priorities for the future of food in Britain.

In this first episode, our group of twenty explore what it means to be a citizen and an advocate, they explore what a food system looks like for different products and they consider the problems, causes and solutions of food system issues and how they interact.

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Actions4Change

Mon, 17 May 2021 23:01:34 GMT

Sixteen-year-old food activist, Saffron Stedall introduces us to some of the young campaigners behind a global youth movement called Act4Food Act4Change. She hears their stories and why they're taking their Actions4Change, the first ever list of asks of governments and businesses all over the world need in order to transform our broken food system to the UN Food Systems Summit.

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Messaging For Good

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 05:00:16 GMT

Ever wondered if advertising healthy food to kids on TV could change the way they snack? In the final episode in this series, co-hosted with the delicious. podcast for delicious magazine, Gilly Smith is joined by Abbie ParkesHolden and Charlie Thurloe, two of the young people helping the Food Foundation to find fresh new ideas to change the food system, look at some extraordinary examples of positive messaging that could reduce obesity.

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Unravelling The Food Chain

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 05:00:12 GMT

This week Gilly Smith is joined by Subhan Shan, one of 426 young people who the Food Foundation consulted to find fresh new policy ideas for the National Food Strategy. They explore the ways in which we have to count the carbon footprint of our current food system and how we begin to start looking for solutions. And... they find the answer!

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The Rise of the Food Club

Wed, 07 Apr 2021 05:00:03 GMT

In a special collaboration with the delicious. podcast for delicious. magazine, Gilly Smith introduces us to a group of young people, some of whom have experienced first-hand food poverty, to explore how to make the food system fairer. All four episodes of the delicious. podcast have been produced in partnership with the Food Foundation and the Right2Food podcast.

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The Influencers

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 05:00:12 GMT

In a special collaboration with the delicious. podcast for delicious. magazine, Gilly Smith introduces us to a group of young people, some of whom have experienced first-hand food poverty, to explore how to make the food system fairer. All four episodes of the delicious. podcast have been produced in partnership with the Food Foundation and the Right2Food podcast.

In this episode, listen to Dame Emma Thompson, Marcus Rashford, Melissa Hemsley and a host of young ambassadors discussing the issues of food poverty, and the ways in which people, no matter their status, can make their voice be heard.

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Rice, peas and plantain

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 06:00:31 GMT

When refugees and migrants were plunged into food insecurity at the start of the pandemic, losing zero hour contracts and part time jobs, Brighton’s Minority Ethnic Community Partnership (BMECP) became much more than a food bank with its culturally appropriate foods and friendship.

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Ital: Rasta food and friendship for Lambeth's poorest families

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 06:00:43 GMT

Sister Marcia and Sister Stella of the Rastafari Movement UK are proud to be able to use their Rasta creed to feed the most vulnerable in their community in South London. By gathering surplus organic fruit and veg from their members’ allotments, they deliver ital, the rasta word for nutrition, to those who can barely afford to feed their families throughout the pandemic.

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Our Kitchen on the Isle of Thanet

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 06:00:16 GMT

Sixty nine-year-old food campaigner, Sharon Goodyer shows Food Foundation ambassadors Felix and Fayeth how her private members' food club, Our Kitchen on the Isle of Thanet in Margate could radically change the food system and enable the poorest to afford to cook and eat healthy, delicious food every day of the week.

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Bristol Food Club

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 05:00:25 GMT

This week the Food Foundation's food ambassadors Dev and Asha report from Bristol on the weekly food club which brings early years education and food surplus together to provide local families with quality food boxes and a community that cares about what we eat.

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Cook It!

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 06:40:01 GMT

This week The Food Foundation's young ambassadors Shane and Anna report from Portadown and the summer Cook It course, a 4-week cookery programme which supports members of immigrant communities and kids on free school meals.

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Evelyn Community Store

Sun, 19 Jul 2020 11:00:25 GMT

This week, Food Foundation's ambassadors Rabiya and Saffy tell the story of The Evelyn Community store in Lewisham and hear from three single parents and their children who have found a lifeline in this local community centre.

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Lockdown Life

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 11:00:41 GMT

Jani, Beth and Jacob are among the Food Foundation young ambassadors reporting from the front line of food poverty. Here they tell how COVID-19 has affected the most vulnerable groups in British society, from access to food and free school meal vouchers to the threat of holiday hunger and food insecurity for thousands of children this summer.

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Right2Food: The Pilot

Wed, 25 Mar 2020 17:58:38 GMT

An introduction to Right2Food, the loud hailing podcast of the Food Foundation to campaign for access to good food for kids everywhere. With Dame Emma Thompson, Anna Taylor and the young ambassadors with lived experience of food insecurity who fight for a better system.

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