Cuppa with a Change Maker
Nathan: Feeding change
☕🫖You pour the brew, I’ll provide the content
In these ‘Cuppa with a Change Maker’ blogs, I’ll feature a guest that is passionate about social justice and tackling educational inequality.
I’m really pleased to share this edition of Cuppa with a Change Maker, because it speaks to something that each of us can relate to, the value of food. Not ‘value’ just in terms of cost, but in what it represents. Nourishment, dignity, access, community and the act of coming together to break bread with others.
In this piece, Nathan Atkinson draws on his experience as a Headteacher and co-founder of Rethink Food to explore what happens when food insecurity becomes part of everyday school life and what it might look like to respond differently.
So, pop the kettle on, take a moment, and digest his reflections. Please do also share this guest blog with schools in your network and consider being part of the movement.
Over to you, Nathan.
(Nathan with a cuppa and bread!)
I’m Nathan Atkinson, co-founder of Rethink Food and a former Headteacher. Most of my career has been spent working in schools serving communities facing significant levels of inequality and hardship. Those experiences have shaped how I see education, not simply as a place where children acquire knowledge, but as one of the most important support systems a community has; a place where the foundations of life are often laid, piece by piece.
When you lead a school in a community under real pressure and facing poverty-related barriers to learning, you learn that education does not happen in isolation. The realities of life beyond the school gates find their way into classrooms every single day. Hunger, housing insecurity, family stress and many other challenges facing far too many individuals and families. These are not abstract concepts; but they do sometimes sit quietly in the room, shaping how children feel, think and learn.
Rethink Food was born from those experiences and from a simple belief; a belief that schools should not have to carry this alone.
Hungry classrooms
For many schools across the UK, child hunger is no longer an occasional crisis. It has become part of the daily fabric of school life. Over the past year, Trussell has highlighted a sharp rise in hunger, with the number of people going without enough food increasing from around 10 million to 14 million. Notably, three-quarters of referrals to their services are now from households living with disability.
Teachers notice it in the quieter moments too; children arriving tired, struggling to concentrate, pupils fading through the afternoon having not eaten since the day before. Families reaching out, often hesitantly, for support. Research undertaken by School Food Matters indicates that 38% of teachers reported that pupils in their classes were regularly too hungry to learn because they have not had enough food. The table below shows, even more worryingly, dramatic differences in responses depending on school deprivation levels. In areas facing most disadvantage, 63% of teachers reported that pupils in their school are regularly too hungry to learn because of a lack of food. This is too visible a trend in too many school communities.
(Source: School Food Matters, 2024)
Schools have always stepped up and that is what they often do. But, increasingly they are doing so with stretched resources and without a clear structure that protects dignity, preserves choice and sustains support over time.
Alongside this sits a wider contradiction in our food system. Vast quantities of perfectly good food are wasted every year, while many families struggle to put food on the table. It is a system where surplus and scarcity sit side by side, an uneven loaf, where some slices are never served while others go without. So the issue is not just hunger, but a a system that allows both waste and need to coexist.
There is also the question of how support is offered. Too often, food aid, even with the best intentions, can unintentionally reinforce stigma, positioning families as passive recipients rather than active participants. Schools are acutely aware of this and work incredibly hard to avoid it. The challenge, then, is not just feeding people. It is doing so in a way that protects dignity, builds trust and offers genuine choice.
Feeding change
At Rethink Food, we aim to feed change through three connected ideas; access, education and systems change.
Access.
Families need reliable ways to access healthy food when times are tough. But that access must be shaped with care, respecting autonomy, culture and circumstance.
This thinking led to the National School Pantry Network. Schools are supported to establish pantries or food hubs within their communities. Not emergency handouts, but spaces where families can choose the food that works for them, shaped by culture, health, religion and preference. It is about participation and not just provision.
Schools, after all, know their communities best. Each pantry reflects that. Some become family food hubs. Others host cooking sessions or parent-led initiatives. The model rises with the community, rather than asking the community to mould itself around the model.
(Source: Rethink Food)
Education.
Food offers a brilliant entry point into wider learning; health, sustainability, environment and agency. Through programmes such as Agents of Change, children begin to understand where food comes from, how it connects to the planet, and how their choices matter. When those seeds are planted early, they often grow beyond the classroom, shaping habits and conversations at home.
(Source: Rethink Food)
System change.
While food provision matters, it should never become the long-term solution to poverty and inequality. Schools should not be the final safety net in a system that is fraying. We have to be bolder and more ambitious than this for all children, especially those facing inequality, poverty and hardship.
So alongside practical work, we bring frontline experience into policy conversations, ensuring that what is happening in classrooms and communities is not lost in translation. Real change happens when lived experience and decision-making are brought back to the same table.
Food for thought
(Source: Rethink Food)
Across the National School Pantry Network, something important is happening. The pantry becomes more than a place where food is available. It becomes a place where relationships are built. Regular visits create space for conversation. Trust grows. Staff begin to understand more about family circumstances; finances, wellbeing, routines, challenges. Support can then be offered earlier, and in a more joined-up way.
Food also has a way of bringing people together. Shared meals, cooking sessions and school events create moments of connection; often between families who may never have met otherwise. There is something powerful about gathering in the same space, breaking bread, and realising you are not alone. Schools no doubt recognise this, but this applies to many other settings and community spaces too.
Confidence is growing too! Parents and carers speak about feeling more able to prepare meals, to try new ingredients, to make food go further. Children become more curious, more open, more willing to explore what they eat.
Arguably the most significant shift is cultural. When support is built around dignity and choice, it changes the experience entirely. Families are not defined by need. They are recognised as part of a community; contributing, participating and belonging.
Our latest impact report signposts just some of the impact that this work is having in and across communities. But, we would encourage you to visit our website and hear more from those experiencing the change. The facts and figures only give one aspect of a story that is growing and a change that is being seen by many.
(Source: Rethink Food, Impact report, 2025)
Breaking bread with us
If you are interested in this work, or in how schools are responding creatively to food insecurity, you can find out more at:
We are always keen to learn from educators, community organisations and policymakers grappling with similar challenges. Schools cannot, and should not, do this in isolation.
At Rethink Food, we understand the challenges teachers face in delivering engaging, impactful lessons that support their students’ health, well-being, and understanding of sustainability. That’s why we’ve created a range of free resources to make learning fun, interactive, and accessible for all.
Our free resources are designed to:
Support the Curriculum: Each resource aligns with key educational goals, helping teachers deliver meaningful lessons while meeting curriculum requirements.
Save Time and Effort: Ready-to-use activities and materials make it easy for teachers to plan lessons or run extracurricular sessions.
Engage Students: Fun, hands-on activities inspire creativity, teamwork, and critical thinking while fostering a love for learning.
Champion Positive Change: Equip young people with the knowledge and skills they need to make healthier, more sustainable choices for themselves and the planet.
If we want children to thrive, we need to think about the whole ecosystem around them; families, communities, and the conditions in which learning takes place. Food might seem like a small piece of that puzzle. But look closely, and it connects to everything. Often, the most meaningful conversations about change do not begin in policy papers or strategy rooms. They begin around a table, sharing food, building trust, and, quite simply, breaking bread.
🫖 Fancy a cuppa?
Could you be one of my next guests?
Here's a link that will take you to a quick form about the blog series. I'll be running 1-2 a month, so I would love to add prospective authors to the schedule.
Please do pass the link on to other change makers you might know of.
Ideas for content might include:
Particular project making a difference to the lived realities of hardship for others
Innovative approaches to understanding and/or tackling inequalities
Signposts of further support, free resources etc on a specific issue
Ideas or examples do not have to be school based
I’m happy to promote approaches, strategies and ideas, but avoid using the blog as a sales pitch for a particular product or traded offer please! (By all means signpost an offer if you think it helps)