If thousands of schools are already providing food support, why are we not designing for it?
Over the past decade, I have watched schools become frontline responders to food insecurity.
- Breakfast clubs.
- Pantries.
- Emergency provision.
- Family advice.
This is no longer fringe activity. It is embedded practice.
Yet when we talk about school estates strategy, we focus on energy, condition, capacity and efficiency.
All vital.
But where is the recognition that schools are now part of our social infrastructure?
The National School Pantry Network has shown that when food support is delivered with dignity and partnership, it becomes a gateway to stability, prevention and long term health equity.
So here is the challenge.
If we know food insecurity is affecting millions of children, why are pantry spaces, community kitchens and partner rooms not standard considerations in new builds and refurbishments?
We are retrofitting social reality into buildings that were not designed for it.
DfE officials. Built environment leaders. Are we designing schools for the world as it was, the world as it is or the world it could be?
EducationEstates PlaceBasedPolicy ChildPovertyStrategy HealthEquity BuiltEnvironment
