The Food Foundation Podcast

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.

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.

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.

Dr Hannah Brinsden, Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Food Foundation tells us about a new report from the Competition Markets Authority about infant formula. Click here for the Food Foundation Manifesto and here to sign up for the newsletter.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.