Serving the public: The good food revolution in schools, hospitals, and prisons

Join us for an in-person panel discussion for the launch of the book “Serving the Public: The good food revolution in schools, hospitals, and prisons” (Manchester University Press, 2025) by Prof Kevin Morgan.

Access to good food is the litmus test of a society’s commitment to social justice and sustainable development. “Serving the Public” explores the ‘good food revolution’ in public institutions, asking what broader lessons can be learned.

Drawing on evidence from the UK, US, and Sweden, the book highlights how public institutions are harnessing the power of purchase to secure public health, social justice and ecological integrity, in a quest to redeem the public sphere and repair the damage wrought by forty years of neoliberalism.

Guest Panellists:

• Kevin Morgan, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University
• Hanna Baumann, Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London
• Andy Gold, Head of Food Strategy, Newham Council
• Mridu Thanki, Community Activist

Moderator:

Dr Saffron Woodcraft, Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London

Abstract

Kevin Morgan’s new book - Serving the Public: The good food revolution in schools, hospitals and prisons - addresses the challenges of public food provisioning, drawing on evidence from the UK, Sweden and the US.

This debate will focus on 2 aspects of the book: (a) the scope and limits of public food procurement, arguing that procurement policy is being set up to fail unless it is integrated with policies to support the production and consumption of sustainable food; and (b) the rise of the Good Food Movement in the UK and its role in promoting major food policy innovations, such as the Good Food Nation Act in Scotland and Universal Free School Meals in state-funded primary schools in Scotland, Wales and London.

About the author

Kevin Morgan is Professor of Governance and Development at Cardiff University. He has been actively involved as a researcher and a campaigner for good food policies in and beyond the UK. He is a member of the School Meals Coalition, an international alliance that aims to ensure that every child has access to a healthy and nutritious meal at school by 2030.

About the panellists

Dr Hanna Baumann is a researcher at UCL Institute for Global Prosperity within The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment. Her work is concerned with the role of infrastructures in shaping urban exclusion and participation, especially of refugees and migrants. She frequently deploys participatory, creative and arts-based research methods in research and is the editor of the journal CITY. Beyond academia, she advises policy organisations and local government on participatory approaches to planning public spaces and services.

Andy Gold is Head of Food Strategy at Newham Council, home to Eat For Free, the countries longest standing universal school meals scheme. Through grant conditions and principles the scheme delivers not just meals but whole school approaches to food in every primary school in the borough. Beyond education the Council continues to deliver an ambitious programme of work tackling challenges and opportunities across the food system wherever there is a local lever than can be pulled. Before local government Andy worked across the food system including in organic and direct trade coffee, the UK’s first sustainable restaurant group, on chef training and access to work programmes with young people leaving prison and care, and with London’s first commercial scale vineyard.

Mridu Thanki was born in India and so was her passion for food – cooking and eating. Even with the move to UK, where she has spent most of my adult life, the passion did not diminish. Producing wholesome, appetising food, often with limited resources (especially in the early days) for family and friends became part of a busy life. Extensive travels exposed Mridu to diverse cultures and their cuisines. To share her culinary experiences and everything to do with foodstuff Mridu has produced 2 books, Feasts of India and The Global Vegetarian (co-authored). She has also run cookery classes in different countries and participated in workshops on food culture. Mridu has worked at a senior level in public and community sectors. Her commitment to and involvement in the voluntary sector continues. She has co-authored ‘Our Lives and Hope: Beyond Statics and Reports’ – a book about children living in poverty. A book on women's fight in the 1970s and 80s against the dictatorship in Paraguay is to be published soon.

About the Moderator

Dr Saffron Woodcraft is Principal Research Fellow and Director of Social Policy at the Institute for Global Prosperity, where she is Executive Lead for the Prosperity Co-Lab (PROCOL) UK. She is Bartlett Faculty Lead for Public Policy.

Saffron's research focuses on understanding lived experiences of community, shared prosperity, and inequality in urban neighbourhoods experiencing rapid change. Her research examines the social and political implications of reimagining prosperity with and for local communities, and the theoretical and methodological challenges this presents to developing new forms of evidence and policy directions.