Search Results
As a mother of two from Middlesbrough, I am deeply passionate about the vital role food plays in building strong communities. Growing up, I experienced the challenges of accessing affordable, nutritious food, which inspired me to become a Food Ambassador. Volunteering gives me the opportunity to advocate for food security, sustainability, and food justice while ensuring access to healthy, nutritious and affordable meals for the community.
Favourite bean, pulse or legume: Red Kidney Beans
Holly joined The Food Foundation in June 2025 as Research Lead. Previously, she worked for eight years as a Sustainability Consultant to the food industry, most recently at 3Keel, and has expertise on food supply chains and tackling the social and environmental issues that exist within them. Holly led the Retailer Cocoa Collaboration, a group of eleven European retailers on tackling human rights abuses and deforestation in cocoa supply chains in West Africa. She has also worked for the NGO Ecologistas en Accion in Seville, setting up urban farming programmes, such as allotments in local schools. Holly holds a postgraduate degree in Food Security from Edinburgh University, and an Undergraduate degree in European Social and Political Studies from University College London.
I have extensive experience working in the Greater Horn of Africa and the UK with non-governmental agencies, the United Nations, as an independent consultant, and with voluntary organisations. I have participated in short-term emergency health and nutrition interventions as well as long-term development work with a key focus on food security. Since returning to the UK, through my social policy, research and campaign work with Citizen Advice, I am familiar with the complex issues concerning the underlying causes of poverty and food insecurity within the UK.
Charles is a population biologist with broad interests in science and the interplay of science and policy. He has spent his career at Oxford University and Imperial College and is currently Director of the Oxford Martin School and Professor of Population Biology at Oxford. His research has involved experimental and theoretical studies in population and community ecology, epidemiology and evolutionary biology. He is particularly interested in food security and leads the Future of Food Programme at Oxford. He chaired the Lead Expert Group of the UK Government Office of Science’s Foresight project on the Future of Food and Farming, and was until 2021 chair of Defra’s (the UK’s farming and environment ministry) Science Advisory Council.
