Webinar Series: Food Insecurity during Covid-19

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we held a series of webinars to share data on food insecurity levels, and to facilitate information sharing on policy and best practice in ensuring food access for vulnerable groups.

Webinar 1 – Food access and Covid-19 – latest evidence from Food Foundation’s YouGov poll

14 April 2020

In this webinar we presented the findings from a survey which measured how food insecurity levels were affected by the start of the pandemic and the introduction of a national lockdown.

Chaired by:

• Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation

Watch the recording here

View the slide deck here

Webinar 2 – Supporting Children’s Rights to Free School Meals during the Covid-19 Emergency

23 April 2020

In this webinar we heard what local authorities were doing in different locations to support children, got an on the new government voucher scheme and learnt about what protections were in place for school food caterers.

Speakers included:

• Louise Nichols, Executive Headteacher of Leap Federation, Hackney to talk about using the school meal service to feed the community
• Rupert Bazeley-White, Operations Manager, HC3S Hampshire, on caterers working in partnership with the local authority and schools during school closures
• Jenny Rosborough, Nutritionist to talk about buying and preparing healthy food on £15 per week
• Andy Hudson, Pupil Premium and School Food Division, Department for Education, on the national free school meal voucher scheme (for England) and the PPN 02/20 supporting catering services at risk due to C-19

Watch the recording here

Webinar 3 – Food insecurity in households with children during Covid-19 lockdown

5 May 2020

In this webinar we presented the findings from our latest survey on the food experiences of UK households with children during the first five weeks of Covid-19 lockdown.

Chaired by:

• Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation

Speakers included:

• Dr Rachel Loopstra, Lecturer in Nutrition at King’s College
• Sabine Goodwin, Coordinator of Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN)
• Helen Barnard, Acting Director of Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Watch the recording here

View the slide deck here [add link to Flourish slides on press release]

Webinar 4 – Return to school: catering for children in a crisis

22 May 2020

This webinar was a collaboration between The Food Foundation, School Food Matters, and Chefs in Schools, with support from Sustain and Soil Association.

As children prepared to return to school after the first Covid-19 lockdown, we used this webinar to explore issues relating to school food provision - how could we move from the national voucher system which was introduced during the lockdown to a better catered solution?  We heard imaginative ideas on how best to cater for pupils, and particularly the most vulnerable children, and explored best practice and learnings from those who were already working to provide nutritious meals for children during the Covid-19 school closure.

Chaired by;

• Stephanie Wood

Speakers included:

• Jeanette Orrey MBE (Co-Founder Food for Life and Co-Chair of School Food Plan Alliance) with Myles Bremner
• Paul Jackson (Headteacher of Manorfield Primary School, Tower Hamlets)
• Mark Davies (Managing Director ISS World Food Services)
• Claire Gray (Health Improvement Practitioner, Public Health, Oxfordshire County Council)
• Amanda Whately (Business Development Manager, HC3S Catering)

Watch the recording here

View the slides here

Webinar 5 – Findings on Food Access and Covid-19: How has the story changed?

27 May 2020

This webinar presented the findings from our fourth Covid-19 food insecurity survey, analysing the changing picture on food insecurity and examining which groups were most at risk and whether they had access to the support they needed.

Chaired by: 

• Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation

Speakers included:

• Dr Rachel Loopstra, Lecturer in Nutrition at King’s College
• Sharon Goodyer, Founder Our Kitchen Thanet
• Jehangir Malik, Programme Director, British Red Cross

Watch the recording here

View our data visualisations here [add link to Flourish slides on press release]

Webinar 6 – Emerging practices from the devolved nations: supporting Free School Meal pupils and food aid community responses to Covid-19

Friday 5 June

This webinar shared the approaches adopted in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to supporting pupils eligible for Free School Meals during Covid-19, and the emerging food aid community responses in each respective nation.

Chaired by:

• Lindsay Graham, Poverty and Inequality Commissioner

Speakers:

• Jayne Jones, Commercial Manager, Argyll and Bute Council, Scotland: speaking on rural delivery of food aid and Free School Meals
• Mark Hunter, Service Manager Food & Catering, East Ayrshire Council, Scotland: speaking on an innovative local authority approach to food aid during Covid-19 including the use of surplus food
• Professor John McKendrick, Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at Glasgow Caledonian University: speaking on Poverty and Inequality Commission Scotland’s research on community group responses to food aid
• Janet McAlister, Catering Manager, Education Authority in Northern Ireland: speaking on the process of direct payments for Free School Meals and other initiatives in Northern Ireland 
• Gareth Thomas, Food in Schools Coordinator, Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), speaking on: an overview of free school meal provisions in Wales and considerations for future practices 
• Judith Gregory, Senior Client Officer, Education Catering at Cardiff Council and LACA Wales Regional Chair: speaking on a Welsh urban approach to Free School Meals 

Watch the recording here

View the slides here