Who we are

We are a registered charity working in partnership with researchers, campaigners, community bodies, industry, Government and citizens to galvanise the UK’s diverse agents of change.

Why we exist

 

 

What’s the future for every 100 children born in 2021 if nothing changes?

 

Our vision

is a sustainable food system which delivers health and wellbeing for all.

kids at mandeville

Our values

Collaborative, creative and innovative, trustworthy and credible, bold and impactful.

Our mission

is changing food policy and business practice to ensure everyone, across the UK nations, can afford and access a healthy and sustainable diet.

We are policy entrepreneurs and use surprising and inventive ideas to catalyse and deliver fundamental change in the food system by building and synthesising strong evidence, shaping powerful coalitions, harnessing citizens’ voices and driving progress with impactful communications. We continually identify new opportunities for action, and trial new levers for change.

Awards

The Food Foundation is proud to have won multiple awards as part of our work to improve the food system in recent years.

These include:

November 2023: Our campaign with The Independent and Evening Standard highlighting the (then) 800,000 children missing out on Free School Meals wins Campaign of the Year at the Society of Editors event.

June 2023: Our Young Food Ambassador Saf wins Youth Activist of the Year at Jamie Oliver's Good School Food Awards.

May 2023: Our Young Food Ambassadors came runners-up in the Young Campaigner Award by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation.

March 2023: Our Policy Research Manager Shona Goudie made Geek of the Week on Peston

January 2023: Best Campaign of the Decade for our work to extend Free School Meals

October 2022: Royal Society for Public Health - Health Equity Award Finalist  

April 2022: Public Sector Catering Award 2022 - Special Contribution Category - Marcus Rashford and the #EndChildFoodPoverty Campaign

September 2021: The Big Impact Award for the End Child Food Poverty Coalition

June 2021: Young Food Ambassadors #Right2Food Podcast series wins Guild of Food Writers 2021 Award for investigative journalism

March 2021: The Food Foundation and PLMR win Kids School Meal Map Award

Staff

Anna Taylor
Anna Taylor
Executive Director

Anna joined The Food Foundation as its first Executive Director at the beginning of June 2015 after five years at the Department for International Development. At DFID Anna led the policy team on nutrition and supported the delivery of the UK’s global commitments to tackle undernutrition. Before joining DFID Anna worked for a number of international organisations including Save the Children and UNICEF and has been at the forefront of international leadership on nutrition for several years, supporting programmes in a wide range of contexts in Africa and South Asia. Anna has also worked for the UK Department of Health. In 2014 she was awarded an OBE for her work to address the global burden of undernutrition. She did a MSc in Human Nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1994. In May 2017 Anna became a member of the London Food Board to advise the Mayor of London and the GLA on the food matters that affect Londoners. She is a Board member for Veg Power and an advisor to the International Food Policy Research Institute. She served as Chief Independent Adviser to Henry Dimbleby for the development of the National Food Strategy published in 2021.

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Alice English
Alice English
Project Officer

Alice joined the Food Foundation in January 2022. She has completed an MSc in Global Environmental Politics and Policy, focusing her research on food systems, with her final project investigating the barriers preventing the widespread adoption of Agroecology.

She has previously worked and volunteered at a range of environmental organisations, such as Greenhouse PR and the Climate Coalition, spent time working on organic farms and taken part in food systems research. She is particularly passionate about creating sustainable and fair food and farming systems.

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Ana María Narváez
Ana María Narváez
Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer

Ana María joined the Food Foundation in December 2023 as our Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Law and an MSc in Food Policy with experience in policy-making process and human rights research. Previously, Ana María worked for UNICEF, the think tank Dejusticia, among other organisations, promoting food systems with a rights-based approach in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the UK, she belonged to the researchers' network IFSTAL and has worked supporting community building initiatives in food projects like The Calthorpe Project and Cultivating Kensington & Chelsea.

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Chloe Mackean
Business Engagement Manager

Chloe joined the team in August 2020 as Global Food Systems Project Manager, leading on The Food Foundation’s international work in the run up to the UK hosting COP26 and the UN Food Systems Summit. She is now the Business Engagement Manager, working with food businesses to encourage them to improve the healthy and sustainability of their portfolios. Before joining us, Chloe worked for the National Trust within the External Affairs team. During her time there she set up a knowledge sharing network for climate change professionals called 'Fit for the Future'. She also spent a year managing an organic farm and sustainability centre.

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Geoff
Geoff Bew
Media and Communications Manager

Geoff joined the Food Foundation as Communications Manager in April 2022. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the media, working as a reporter and news editor for newspapers and websites in the UK and abroad. Prior to joining us, he graduated with an MA in Journalism and is passionate about promoting a food system that is better for human health, the environment and animal welfare. He is also interested in how nutritional science can help in the battle against rising levels of obesity and diabetes.

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Hannah
Hannah Brinsden
Head of Policy and Advocacy

Hannah joined the Food Foundation in May 2023 as the Head of Policy & Advocacy. She oversees our portfolio of policy and Government engagement activities. Prior to joining us, Hannah worked at the World Obesity Federation for over 10 years where she worked across a range of issues including childhood obesity, food systems and healthcare. She also previously worked at Consensus Action on Salt and Health as a Nutritionist, leading on product surveys. Hannah has an undergraduate degree in Nutrition and Food Science from The University of Reading and a PhD in Food Policy from City, University of London which explored the role of NGO advocacy in UK nutrition policy.

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Indu
Indu Gurung
Senior Project Officer

Indu joined The Food Foundation in 2019 as part of the Rank Foundation’s Time to Shine scheme, moving into a Project Officer role in 2020. She works on the Peas Please and Plating up Progress projects. Prior to joining The Food Foundation, Indu completed a MSc in Public Health and a BSc in Human Nutrition. She is interested in reducing health inequalities, children’s health and wellbeing, and sustainable and nutritious food system/diets. Indu is also a lover of veg, having recently taken up urban gardening.

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Jackie Marshall
Jackie Marshall
Business Engagement Manager

Jackie joined the Food Foundation in July 2024 as Business Engagement Manager (Mat cover). She engages with businesses across the UK, working with them on actions they can take to shift the UK towards more healthy and sustainable diets, underpinned by our Plating Up Progress benchmark. Jackie has more than 20 years’ experience in the food industry, having begun her career in marketing roles in large food manufacturing companies. In 2017, she moved into the charity sector, working with business partners at both Diabetes UK and the Fairtrade Foundation. She led the global Fairtrade COP26 campaign and the flagship Fairtrade Fortnight campaign. Jackie is committed to social justice and collaborating with others to address dietary inequalities and climate change challenges.

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Jo
Jo Ralling
Head of Campaigns

Jo joined The Food Foundation as Head of Communications in April 2018. Jo is passionate Media & Campaigns Executive specialising consumer health and public advocacy campaigns with over 20 years’ experience working across all areas of Broadcast, Digital and Print Media.

In the past 11 years Jo has held leadership positions in the Jamie Oliver Group driving growth for the media group, overseeing all television production and distribution of over 300 hours of programming, creating the global digital strategy and setting up the hugely successful Multi Channel Network Food and Drinks Tube. She launched the SUGAR SMART campaign for the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation and played a pivotal role in delivering the UK and global advocacy campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of sugar to long term public health and lobbying the Government to urgently introduce a Childhood Obesity Strategy and Sugar Tax.

In October 2017 Jo launched RISING TIDE FILMS, an Independent Production Company based in Brighton and set up the Brighton Production Hub to connect production talent and broadcasters across the city.​

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Josh
Josh Day
Communications Assistant

Josh joined The Food Foundation in 2023 as part of the Rank Foundation’s Time to Shine scheme. He completed a BA in Film Studies before continuing to study an MA in Culture and Critical Theory. Before moving to The Food Foundation Josh worked in a variety of roles in a primary school setting, utilising his experience to support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the school community. Josh is interested in the impact that food systems and environments have on people's lives and is driven by a desire to ensure people have better access to a healthy and nutritious diet.

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Joss
Joss MacDonald
Public Affairs Lead

Joss joined the Food Foundation in June 2023 as our Public Affairs Lead, overseeing engagement with parliamentarians. He has worked for a range of causes in the past including in the disability and health sectors, as well as in human rights law. Prior to this he worked for many years in the House of Commons. He has also studied ceramics and has spent time working as a potter. Joss’ interest in food systems began young, growing up overlooking a farm in Hampshire. He is now the proud owner of an inner city allotment and involved in the management of a community garden on the council estate where he lives.

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Juliet Grant
Juliet Grant
Senior Communications Manager

Juliet joined The Food Foundation in August 2023 as Senior Communications Manager, overseeing the communications team and running the press office. She has worked in communications for a range of third sector organisations focused on social innovation, sustainability and the food system. Prior to joining us she worked as Communications Manager for the Soil Association’s Food for Life Scotland programme, and before that was Media Manager at Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. Juliet is passionate about food and has also spent time working on a farm in Scotland learning about regenerative agriculture.

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Katina
Katina-Leigh Taylor
Campaigns and Research Administrator

Katina joined The Food Foundation in January 2024 as a Campaigns and Research Administrator, and brings a wealth of knowledge to her role with an MA in Sociology and Social Policy and a BA in Sociology. Her research expertise spans critical areas, including exploring the social determinants of health concerning food poverty, analysing the delegitimisation and polarisation of Black Lives Matter in media discourse, and studying international policymaking regarding abortion legislation. With a passion for understanding societal dynamics, Katina is committed to leveraging her academic background to inform and shape impactful campaigns and research initiatives.

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Ke Yih Lim
Ke Yih Lim
Citizens Engagement Assistant

Ke Yih joined the Food Foundation in 2023 as a Citizens Engagement Assistant, recently completing her MSc in Sociology. Her prior experiences have showcased her commitment to sustainability and social equality. During her internship roles, Ke actively advocated for the cause of reducing food waste and promoting sustainable production consumption practices. Her dedication also extends to providing advocacy support for underprivileged women and girls.

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Leticija
Leticija Petrovic
Local Food Policy Lead

Leticija joined The Food Foundation in January 2023 as a City Food Policy Lead. She is working directly with Birmingham City Council on deployment and implementation of its Food System Strategy with the aim of transforming the local food system. Before joining us she worked as a consultant on number of large transformation programmes across both public and third sector, focusing on service design and improving citizen experience. Leticija also has experience of creating strong social value offering for private sector consultancies who hold public services contracts. She completed MSc in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security at Newcastle University and is particularly interested in regenerative agriculture and food sovereignty. She grew up in Croatia spending summers at her grandparents’ allotments where she developed a passion for small scale organic food production.

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Lucy Heyderman
Lucy Heyderman
Citizen Engagement Manager

Before joining, Lucy worked in London’s largest food redistribution charity – The Felix Project – managing a capital-wide volunteer programme with 1,000s of volunteers. She also set up and developed Felix’s equity, diversity and inclusion work, and feels passionately about advocating for social justice both within and outside the workplace. Lucy is an avid volunteer (especially when food is involved)! While completing a MA in Gender & Development at the Institute of Development Studies, she started a healthy eating programme at youth homelessness day centre. This time cemented her understanding of the social inequities surrounding access to nutritious food in the UK.

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Rebecca
Rebecca Tobi
Senior Business and Investor Engagement Manager

Rebecca joined the Food Foundation in January 2020, leading on the Peas Please initiative. These days she manages our business and investor engagement team, with oversight of our work engaging food businesses, investors and policy-makers with the need to transition the UK towards a more sustainable and healthy food system. This includes our Peas Please and Plating Up Progress projects.

Rebecca is a Registered Nutritionist (RNutr) with a background in science communication, joining the Food Foundation from the Nutrition Society. In a previous life, Rebecca worked in the marketing and tech sectors before deciding to move into nutrition, obtaining a MSc in Nutrition for Global Health at the London School of Hygiene and Medicine.

Rebecca is a lover of veg (peas really are her favourite vegetable), a staunch advocate for evidence-based nutrition communication, and is passionate about structural changes that make healthy and sustainable diets accessible for all.

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Rochelle Haye
Rochelle Haye
Operations Assistant

Rochelle Haye is a detail-oriented data enthusiast with a strong foundation community engagement, and project coordination. She previously worked within the non-profit and public sectors. Rochelle's background equips her to navigate the complexities of community projects and support impactful initiatives and is passionate about using her skills to create positive change and build efficient, data-informed strategies for community-focused organisations.

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Roz
Roz Salik
Events Manager

Roz joined The Food Foundation in January 2020 as Events Manager from the Sustainable Restaurant Association. She is an experienced events and campaigns project manager specialising in public and stakeholder engagement and awareness-raising events across the not for profit, public and corporate sector.

Roz has held event management positions at Plan International UK, The Centre for Social Justice, Crisis, JTI and London 2012. Prior to this, Roz was the first Marketing Manager at the GLA from 2001-2009 overseeing public campaigns and events at City Hall for the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

Roz grew up in her parents’ Polish/Italian delicatessen and has had a lifelong passion for food, food education and food related community activities in her south London neighbourhood.

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Sarah
Sarah Buszard
Responsible Investment Engagement Lead

Sarah joined the Food Foundation in April 2023 as the Responsible Investment Engagement Lead. She leads on the work engaging the investor voice in advocating for more sustainable and healthy food systems. Sarah has a MA in International Environmental Law and Sustainable Development, with a focus on Human Rights Law. She is passionate about social change and creating a food system that works for both the planet and people’s health. Prior to joining the Food Foundation, she worked for over 10 years for the world's largest human rights organisation and did a stint in local government. Sarah also has expertise in governance and European languages. 

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Shona
Shona Goudie
Policy and Advocacy Manager

Shona joined The Food Foundation as a Project Officer in 2019 and has worked on research, policy and advocacy across a range of projects over that time including leading our food insecurity surveys and flagship annual Broken Plate reports. She now works across the charity's policy portfolio including our children's food campaigns, food insecurity and food environments. She is a Registered Associate Nutritionist with a background in clinical nutrition who worked in dietetic departments in NHS hospitals before joining The Food Foundation.

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Tilda
Tilda Ferree
Project Officer

Tilda joined the Food Foundation’s Peas Please team in June 2022 as a Citizen Engagement Officer, to support the Veg Advocates to deliver local initiatives that drive up veg consumption. After graduating, her passion for food and people led her to volunteer at a local youth group, where she was cooking and creating games for teenagers. She went on to work for a range of NGOs, where she was advocating for young people facing challenges in the care, asylum and criminal justice systems. Throughout this work, Tilda became passionate about the power of people and grassroots organisations to change systems. In her free time Tilda loves to swim, chat, cook and eat.

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Trustees

Laura
Laura Sandys CBE
Chair and Founder

Laura Sandys founded The Food Foundation in 2014 as an independent policy think tank to challenge the current food system and how it was impacting the public’s health, and the affordability of healthy food, particularly focused on lower income families – here and aboard.   

Former Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency, she has been a long-standing campaigner on food issues, focused on system wide solutions and evaluating success through real public outcomes. She is an active contributor to public policy in climate change, energy policy and resource management accelerating action towards a net zero economy.

Previously she was an MP and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Energy & Climate Change Minister. Described by The Times as “one of the sanest of all MPs” and by Conservative Home as “lateral-minded, original and free-thinking”, she has brought her political and business experience to calls for innovation in food systems policy. 

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Rosie
Baroness Rosie Boycott

Baroness Rosie Boycott is a member of the House of Lords and has had a long and distinguished career as a journalist, publisher and author, including having been the editor of several national newspapers in the UK.

In 2008 she was appointed as Chair of the London Food Board to advise the Mayor of London on sustainable food policy implementation in the capital. In October 2016, the new Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, asked Rosie to lead the development of a new London Food Strategy to help the food system to work better to meet the needs of everyone who lives and works in London.

In 2018 Rosie became a member of the House of Lords after leaving the London Food Board and she continues to write regularly and speak all over the world about the role of cities, and the importance of food in combating hunger and food insecurity, improving health, tackling childhood obesity and helping to reduce carbon emissions contributing to climate change.  

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Michael
Prof Sir Michael Marmot

Sir Michael Marmot has been Professor of Epidemiology at University College London since 1985.  Professor Marmot is the Advisor to the WHO Director-General, on social determinants of health, in the new WHO Division of Healthier Populations; Distinguished Visiting Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong (2019-); and Co-Director of the of the CUHK Institute of Health Equity. He is the recipient of the WHO Global Hero Award; the Harvard Lown Professorship (2014-2017); the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health (2015); and 19 honorary doctorates. Marmot has led research groups on health inequalities for nearly 50 years.  

He was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities. Professor Marmot is a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.

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Charles
Prof Sir Charles Godfray

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. 

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David
David Edwards

David Edwards is the Assistant Director of The Prince of Wales’ International Sustainability Unit.  David oversees the ISU’s natural capital risks team and heads the Unit’s work on food security. This work seeks to use HRH’s neutral convening power to help build consensus on the need for transformations in food systems and to accelerate international action on this agenda. David’s work focuses on illuminating the economic arguments for transformations in food systems and centres on the developing consensus around policy changes that can help level the playing field for the evolution of healthier, more sustainable food-systems.

David’s work with the ISU is currently focused on accelerating ICT innovation to support sustainable smallholder agriculture, and on developing a collaboration among international organisations, city leaders and the private sector to help mainstream healthier city regional food systems. Prior to his current role David was Project Manager of the Princes’ Rainforest Project (PRP) and worked previously both as a development consultant in Africa and as a market research executive with TNS-Global, where he advised a number of major food and drinks companies working in the UK. David has a BA in History and an MSc in International Development.

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Essie
Essie North

Essie is the CEO of Big Change – a charity acting as a catalyst for system change in how we support the next generation. Essie leads Big Change’s work backing pioneering people and projects who are rethinking how we can set up all young people in the UK to thrive in life, not just in exams. It takes a collective approach, activating a network of global and national partners to make change around its “10 hopes for change” a reality, and looking at the intersections between education, health, wellbeing and the future of work.

Essie’s focus has been on change and transformation in different iterations throughout her career. Building on her background in psychology as the field shifted from fixing problems to understanding human thriving, she spent 10 years advising a network of 500 leading global businesses on best practice in leadership and approaches to drive change in how they engage their employees and create positive impact with the communities and societies they operate in.  Essie is a qualified business coach and a big believer in supporting the people in all parts of the system to make change a reality.

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Andrew
Andrew Hobbs

Andrew leads EY’s EMEIA Public Policy team which works with key stakeholders, including in Brussels, to strengthen the working relationship between the public and private sectors in policy and regulatory matters on topics such as sustainability, technology, corporate governance (including reporting and assurance) and skills. He is chair of the Research Advisory Board for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Corporate Governance Working Group of the European Contact Group whose members comprise the six largest accounting networks in the EU. He is vice-chair of the Corporate Governance Policy Group of Accountancy Europe and a member of (i) the Financial Capital Committee of the International Corporate Governance Network; and (ii) the Corporate Governance Committee of Business at OECD. He is the co-author of EY’s annual Long-Term Value and Sustainable Corporate Governance Survey and leads EY's Center for Board Matters in EMEIA – a team that curates content for company directors to support them in their important roles. He regularly writes blogs about the role of corporate governance in trust. He is an experienced charity trustee having spent eight years on the Board of Bliss where he chaired its Risk & Evaluation Committee for three years. He also co-developed the FT course "So you want to be a charity trustee?" He is a father of four and in his spare time likes cycling, cooking and making homebrew.

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Tom Lindsay
Tom Lindsay

Tom is a founding Partner of Spayne Lindsay & Co. He is a Chartered Accountant and graduate of Manchester University and has more than 30 years investment banking experience, having worked for Flemings and Lehman Brothers, both in the UK and USA. Tom founded Spayne Lindsay & Co, with John Spayne, in 2004.

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Neil Leitch Food Foundation trustee
Neil Leitch

Following a career in finance which culminated in chairing the Finance Industry Standards Association, Neil volunteered his skills to what was then the Pre-school Learning Alliance. In 2008, Neil was appointed as CEO. He has been a strident leader of the largest early years membership organisation in the country, overseeing its rebrand to the Early Years Alliance in 2019 – a change that reflected its ambition to give a united voice to all involved in caring and educating young children. Neil has fronted numerous sector campaigns on fair funding and notably the mental health of the early years workforce. He has provided evidence to multiple government inquiries and played a pivotal role in developing the two-year-old early entitlement offer. Neil’s membership of the Department for Business and Trade Education Sector Advisory Group has also given his work international reach, particularly in China and the rest of Asia. He remains a powerful voice for the sector, fighting to ensure early years is recognised as an integral part of our national education system.

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Parveen Bird
Parveen Bird

Parveen Bird is a Director at the Big issue Group. She began as a volunteer helping to organise events around the 15th birthday of the Big Issue. For the 30th anniversary, she was the Co-Executive Producer of a cinema released documentary called Someone’s Daughter Someone’s Son. Prior to that Parveen was a live on-screen reporter and Producer for ITV National breakfast TV. A lack of affordable, accessible healthy food and access to a kitchen are some of the issues commonly faced by Big Issue vendors and other marginalised people. Many of the newspaper's vendors have horticultural growing skills and the Big Issue is looking to pilot a project in regenerative food growing, that will grow food and grow people.

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Food Foundation trustee Sophie Harris
Dr Sophie Harris 

Sophie is a Consultant in Diabetes and General Medicine and Clinical Lead for Diabetes at King’s College Hospital NHS FT. She also holds leadership roles in South London as Joint Clinical Director of Diabetes at the Health Innovation Network (HIN) and Joint Director of King’s Health Partners, Diabetes, Obesity and Endocrinology Clinical Academic Partnership. After studying Medicine at Cardiff University, Sophie completed her medical training in South London. During this time, she noticed inconsistencies in the delivery of and access to services. This piqued her interest in driving change to address inequalities by finding ways to scale-up proven innovations and best practice at regional and national levels. She is a strong believer in providing people with the right skills to empower them to make informed lifestyle and health decisions. She is currently leading a project for NHS England assessing user experience and outcomes in diabetes.

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Food Foundation trustee Judith Batchelar
Judith Batchelar OBE

Judith has worked in the food and drink industry for 40 years in manufacturing, retailing, and from 2004 to 2021 as Director of Sainsbury’s Brand driving the Product Quality and Innovation agendas along with Corporate Responsibility, Sustainability, and Public Affairs. Today she is Deputy Chair of The Environment Agency, Chair of MicroSalt and The Rugby Players Association, a Non-Executive Director of Monaghan Mushrooms and Daemon, a Trustee of The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and an ambassador for Farm Africa and the Woodland Trust. Judith is a Biochemist, nutritionist, has an Honorary Doctorate in Agriculture from Harper Adams University, she is an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Societies, Honorary President of the British Nutrition Foundation, and a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST), the Royal Society of Arts and Manufactures (RSA) and a liveryman at The Worshipful Company of Butchers. From 2013 to 2018 she co-chaired of the Governments’ AgriTech Council and today she co-chairs Defra’s Food Data Transparency Partnership Eco group. She was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to Farming and the Food Industry, and is a Commissioner on the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission and The Harper Commission into the Future of UK Food.

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Pat Biggers

Pat Biggers is a Portfolio Manager and Director at Lazard Asset Management in London. She is a Trustee of Morgan Stanley’s Global Impact Funding Trust and Chair of the Impact Evaluation and Monitoring Committee. Pat also serves on the Advisory Board of the Mayor’s Fund for London. Previously she was an adviser for the Mayor’s Fund’s “Kitchen Social” project addressing children’s holiday hunger, and also has been an active volunteer for several food rescue/redistribution projects. Pat currently volunteers for the Ukraine Welcome Centre, and a is member of the UN Principles of Responsible Investment’s "Advance" stewardship initiative on human rights and social issues.

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Expert Advisers

Tim Lob
Prof Tim Lobstein

Tim Lobstein is Senior Policy Advisor to the World Obesity Federation based in London, UK, and is an Honorary Professor at the Boden Obesity Collaboration, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. He was previously a Visiting Fellow at the Rudd Food Policy Center, Yale University, and a Research Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, and for many years was a director of the UK Food Commission and editor of its journal, The Food Magazine.

Tim has been the lead author of papers on children’s health in several journals including Obesity Reviews and Lancet and a member of the Lancet Commission on Obesity, contributing to its report on The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition and Climate Change. Tim has written several chapters for standard textbooks on obesity in childhood and obesity prevention, and has undertaken consultancies for the European Commission, the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

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Martin
Prof Martin White

Martin White is programme leader and professor of population health research in the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, where he leads publicly-funded research on understanding and changing food systems to improve population health. He has particular interests in food environments that shape what we eat, as well as the causes and consequences of, and interventions to reduce, social inequalities in health. He acts as an adviser to governments, the World Health Organisation and a number of non-governmental organisations. Martin graduated in Medicine from Birmingham University, from which he also gained an MD, and has an MSc in public health from Newcastle University. He is a Fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health, past President of the UK Society for Social Medicine, and the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine.

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Emma
Emma Coles

Emma is a co-founder and partner of Food Smart Advisors, a boutique consultancy working on solutions for a healthier world. In addition, Emma is working with Voeding Leeft, a Dutch NGO that develops innovative food programs including a program to use lifestyle changes to reverse type 2 diabetes.

Previously Emma was head of Sustainable Retailing at Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket in the Netherlands and part of the Ahold Delhaize group. Emma was responsible for health and sustainability, with an interest in the link between diet and health and the opportunities for the food retail industry to support consumer health. While at Ahold Emma was Co-Chair of the Consumer Goods Forum Health and Wellness pillar.

Before joining Ahold Emma was Director of the Health Insurance Fund, a foundation supporting low-cost health insurance delivered through the private sector in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Three years running Emma has been included in the Dutch Food100 list: 100 people changing the food system in the Netherlands. Emma is a member of the Tuft’s Nutrition Council.

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Rachel
Dr Rachel Loopstra

Rachel Loopstra is a Lecturer in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London. She is a quantitative researcher, and her research explores the impact of social policies on nutrition, household food insecurity and health. Recent projects include a nationwide survey of people using food banks in The Trussell Trust Foodbank Network, conducted in collaboration with The Trussell Trust. She is currently working on an ESRC-funded project exploring the rise of food bank use and food insecurity over the period of economic recession and austerity in the UK. She completed her PhD in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto.

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Katie Gordon
Katie Gordon

Katie is an independent director and adviser. She has spent most of her career in Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) and corporate marketing.  She was Head of SRI at Cazenove Capital Management for 12 years, where she initiated and led the SRI offering. This was followed by 5 years as Director of Responsible Investment and Stewardship at CCLA. Katie spent 5 years in strategic brand management and was a founding director of Swordfish Integrated Marketing. Previous Board positions include 7 years as trustee of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, and Board Director of UK Sustainable Investment Forum (UKSIF).  Katie is currently a Non Executive Director (NED) of Thrive Renewables, including being a member of both the Nominations and Remuneration Committees; she is an independent member of the Access Endowment Investment Committee; is a member of the Advisory Board of LEAP – Livestock, Environment and People; and on the Expert Advisory Group for Snowball IM.

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Dustin Benton
Dustin Benton

Dustin is policy director at Green Alliance, leading its work across energy, resources, and the natural environment, with a particular focus on getting on track to net zero emissions. Between 2020-21, he was on secondment with Defra, where he was chief analytical advisor to the National Food Strategy. Previously he led work in the Low Carbon Energy and Resource Stewardship themes, focusing on energy efficiency, renewables, and CCS, and was an expert commentator on resource risk, plastics, circular electronics and the EU-wide Alliance for Circular Economy Solutions. Before joining Green Alliance, Dustin worked for the Campaign to Protect Rural England where he led work on the relationship between landscape protection, climate change, and new energy infrastructure. He holds an MA in Political Thought and Theory from the University of Birmingham and an MA in International Relations and French from the University of St Andrews.

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Laura Cornelsen
Laura Cornelsen

Laura Cornelsen is an Associate Professor in Public Health Economics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) where she co-leads the Population Health Innovation Lab (PHI-Lab). Her active research interest is in understanding how food environments, including price and availability of food and policies and industry actions shape people’s food choices and diets. Laura has a MSc in Health Economics from the University of York and a PhD in Economics from Trinity College Dublin.

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Background Pattern

Our work with celebrities

An influencer or celebrity can support our work in a variety of different ways, whether through social media support, acting as campaign spokesperson, or taking an even more serious role by becoming an ambassador. This helps raise our profile, reach new audiences, and deliver impact.

So far we've worked with footballer Marcus Rashford, actress Emma Thompson, chefs Jamie Oliver, Tom Kerridge, Melissa Hemsley and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and TV presenter Leyla Kazim amongst others.

Emma Thompson

Our Governance

We are a charity. Our charitable objects can be found here.

Our trustees have two committees. Their terms of reference can be found here: 

Audit and Risk Committee

Impact and Reputation Committee

You can view our annual reports here

Our Funders

We are extremely grateful to our funders for all their support. If you would like to make a donation to our work you can do so here.

We only accept funding which does not compromise our independence. The Food Foundation reviews all financial engagements – assessing whether potential donations are acceptable and in line with the Foundation’s aims.

We use the Financial Relationship Policy developed by World Obesity Federation to help us consider new financial engagements. The Food Foundation’s assessment protocol for these can be found here. The Food Foundation’s financial engagement strategy is reviewed on a regular basis.

The Food Foundation's reserves policy can be found here.

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