The Food Foundation Podcast

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.

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.

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.

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.

Michelle Patel, Deputy Director of Analysis at the Food Standards AgencyThe 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.

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.

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.

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

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.