Food for Thought – The talk series about what we eat
Doors open from 6.30pm, talks will run 7pm-8pm.
Featuring dinner ladies and campaigners, each talk explores how school dinners came to be, the forces that shaped them, and what their story reveals about broader attitudes to children, nutrition and public life.
£12 – talk
Food for Thought Talks
Jeanette Orrey: Food for Life
Thursday 23 April
What children eat in school has always reflected wider questions about health, class, farming and the way we feed the nation. Building on the Food Museum’s School Dinners exhibition, this talk with Jeanette Orrey MBE explores how school meals can become a powerful catalyst for change – improving children’s nutrition while supporting healthier farming and localised procurement, all while helping young people understand the full journey of food from soil to plate. Drawing on her pioneering work with the Food for Life programme, Orrey considers how schools can shape healthier habits and influence the future of our food system.
About Jeanette Orrey
Jeanette Orrey MBE is a pioneering school food reformer and co-founder of Food for Life. Formerly a school dinner lady, she transformed the menus at St Peter’s Primary in Nottinghamshire, proving that fresh, local, cooked-from-scratch school meals are achievable and affordable. Her campaigning has reshaped national policy on children’s food, and her book The Dinner Lady remains a touchstone for healthier school-meal advocacy across the UK.
The Food Foundation: Changing Food, Changing Lives
Thursday 25 June
The Food Foundation has become one of the UK’s most influential voices on children’s nutrition, food insecurity and the affordability of healthy diets. In this talk, a member of the Foundation’s senior leadership team will discuss the organisation’s evidence-based approach to driving policy change – from monitoring the cost of the national food basket to advocating for fairer food systems. Central to the conversation is the Foundation’s landmark collaboration with Marcus Rashford, which transformed public support for expanding free school meals and triggered national attention on child hunger. We will examine how strategic campaigning can influence government action and what must happen next to secure long-term, systemic change.
Also in the Food for Thought series:
The Watermill Lunch: A Breaducation – Rebecca Bishop, Ben Mackinnon and David Wright
Sunday 31 May
Moderated by Joanne Ooi from EA Sutain, this lunch hour talk brings together three voices at the heart of the bread world: David Wright, baker and author of Breaking Bread; Ben Mackinnon, farmer and founder of pioneering bakery-cafe E5 Bakehouse; and Rebecca Bishop, author, baking teacher, and founder of Two Magpies.
Together, they’ll explore the full story of bread — its history, its evolution, and how this single foodstuff, the fulcrum of the arable farming industry, can play a pivotal role in restoring health to both people and the planet.
The talk will be followed by a bread-themed lunch. This event is part of the Food Museum’s Bread Week and The Real Bread Campaign.
About Rebecca Bishop
Rebecca Bishop is an award-winning baker, food writer and educator, and the founder of Suffolk-based Two Magpies Bakery. A passionate advocate for slow fermentation, bold flavours and locally sourced ingredients, Bishop helped shape a modern approach to British baking through her bakeries and schools. Now through her teaching business, The Next Loaf, and her writing and consultancy work, she shares her experience with home bakers and food businesses alike, championing thoughtful, skills-led baking rooted in place and craft.
About Benjamin Mackinnon
Ben Mackinnon is a regenerative farmer at Fellows Farm in Suffolk and the founder of London’s acclaimed E5 Bakehouse. A leading voice in the movement for better grain and better bread, Mackinnon focuses on agroecological farming, heritage cereals, and building short, transparent supply chains. His work connects soil health to human health, demonstrating how farms, mills, and bakeries can work together to reshape the future of food.
About David Wright
David Wright is a baker, food activist, and author of Breaking Bread, a manifesto for reclaiming real, nutritious bread in British diets. Based at The Black Bull in Sedbergh, he champions regenerative grains, traditional milling, and community-focused baking. Through teaching, campaigning, and hands-on practice, Wright argues that good bread is both a health imperative and a cultural inheritance worth protecting—and that transforming our loaves can transform our food system.
£30 – Watermill Lunch
