The Food Foundation Podcast

What does campaigning to improve the food system look like through the eyes of a youth activist?We invited Food Ambassador Jacob Kennedy and our Citizen Engagement Assistant Maki Ramaditya onto the podcast to share some insight and spill the beans on this year's annual 'Resi' for young ambassadors. The Food Ambassador Programme is for volunteers aged between 14 to 25, many of whom have lived experience of food insecurity and can report from the front line on how the food system can be made fairer and should be made fairer. The residential is their opportunity to meet up and share their experience and their wins in a year of campaigning.Click here for more information on the food ambassadors and here for the Food Foundation newsletter.

This week, Gilly Smith, award-winning food journalist and the producer of The Food Foundation Podcast tells us about BrightonFoodStory, an ideas-led food festival aimed at transforming how a city eats which soft launches on October 2-4.Click here for more information and here for the Food Foundation newsletter.

In the week the Government announced updated school food standards for the first time in over a decade, Zainab, a youth activist at Bite Back, tells us about the School Food Project's bold prank involving Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett and youth activists shining a light on the reality some children still face at lunchtime. The stunt also demonstrated the potential the new standards can have in ensuring ensure every child has a nutritious meal at lunchtime.Watch the stunt here, find out more about the project here for more information and here to sign up to The Food Foundation newsletter.

Sarah Ayech, the UK director of Madre Brava, a climate and food non-profit campaigning for affordable, sustainable, and healthy food for all, tells us about the rise in plant protein sales, and especially beans.Click here for more information on Madre Brava, and here for the Food Foundation newsletter.

Freya Harapp, a registered nutritionist at Food Matters, tells us how food is being used as a powerful lever for rehabilitation in prisons. Click here for more details about the charity's work in prisons, here for its latest report and here to sign up to The Food Foundation newsletter.

Nésa Depeza Njie, part of the Recipe for Change team at Sustain is back to update us on We're Fed Up! campaign, a people-powered call for healthy, affordable food.Click here for more information on We're Fed Up, and here for the Food Foundation newsletter.

Alice English, a senior project officer in the Place Base Food Systems team at the Food Foundation tells us about a new report published this week called Farming for Five a Day, which looks at the resilience of the UK's supply of fruit, vegetables, and beans in a changing climate. Click here for more information and here for the Food Foundation newsletter.

Leon Ballin, Place-based Food System Manager at the Food Foundation is joined by a panel of experts to explore household food insecurity.Andrew Forsey, National Director of Feeding Britain, Penny Walters, Food Ambassador at the Food Foundation, Susanne Jaspers, Senior Research Fellow with the SOAS Food Studies Center and Elaine Morgan, the Principal for Strategy Reform at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority debate the question of whether the government's commitment to ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels can be achieved through change in local food support systems. Click here for the Food Foundation newsletter.

Hannah Abrams, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer at the Food Foundation, argues the case for the HAF (Holiday Activities and Food) Programme that keeps kids on Free School Meals properly nourished during the school holidays. She argues that with the Government's pledge to expand school meals to an additional half a million children from the September 2026 school term, the expansion of HAF is a missing link.If you'd like to support Feeding Britain's campaign to expand HAF alongside free school meals, click here, and here for the Food Foundation newsletter.For further reading check out The Children's Society report: Walking into nothing: The hidden cost of the school holidays for families | The Children's Society and Feeding Britain's briefing here: https://feedingbritain.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Feeding-Britain-HAF-Briefing.pdf