The Food Foundation Podcast

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.