Today, Rethink Food featured on BBC Look North, shining a light on a reality schools across the UK know all too well: child hunger is no longer an exception, it’s part of the everyday school experience.
The feature focused on the growing role schools are playing in feeding families, at a time when the cost of living continues to rise and school budgets are under increasing strain. Recent research from the University of Bristol shows that schools have now become the largest provider of food support in England, with around 4,000 school-based food banks operating nationwide.
For our co-founder Nathan Atkinson, this issue is deeply personal.
Formerly a headteacher in Leeds, Nathan founded Rethink Food after witnessing the impact hunger was having on children’s ability to learn, concentrate and thrive.
“This goes back to 2014, when a child stood in front of me and simply said, ‘I’m hungry,’” Nathan said on Look North.
“How can you teach a hungry child? If we want children to succeed, we have to meet their most basic needs and nourishment is fundamental.”
When teachers step in because they feel they have no choice
During the BBC feature, Nathan spoke about something that continues to trouble him deeply: teachers and support staff using their own money and food to support hungry pupils.
“We were seeing teachers bringing food in from their own cupboards and buying food out of their own wallets,” he explained.
“That’s not sustainable, and it’s not right. School budgets have been decimated, yet schools are being asked to hold families together.”
This is the reality playing out in classrooms and playgrounds across the country and it’s why Rethink Food launched the National School Pantry Network (NSPN).
A practical, dignified solution: the National School Pantry Network
Through the National School Pantry Network (NSPN), schools receive direct funding (£100 per week) alongside training and wraparound support, enabling them to provide stigma-free food support tailored to their communities. That might look like food parcels, free fruit stalls, supper clubs or family cooking sessions, designed and delivered by schools themselves.
One of the schools featured on Look North, Morley Victoria Primary School, uses NSPN funding to run a weekly free fruit stall in the playground and a supper club where children learn to cook meals they can take home to their families.
Assistant Headteacher Kevin Precious shared how the rising cost of living is affecting families well beyond those traditionally seen as “in need”.
“It can be families with two working parents who are struggling,” he said.
“Food has gone up, bills have gone up, childcare costs are massive, even when both parents work, a lot of wages disappear straight away.”
Without NSPN funding, he explained, the school simply wouldn’t be able to provide this support.
Empowering families, not labelling them
Parents, too, are feeling the pressure. One parent featured in the programme spoke about how supermarket bills have nearly doubled, forcing families towards cheaper, more processed food.
What makes school pantries different is their focus on dignity, choice and education. Children don’t just receive food, they gain skills, confidence and a sense of normality.
“With cooking clubs, you’re empowering children with lifelong skills,” Kevin added.
“That’s about much more than food.”
Why this matters now
This coverage comes just weeks after the Government’s new Child Poverty Strategy formally recognised the National School Pantry Network as an example of effective, community-led innovation, reinforcing what schools have been telling us for years: local, practical solutions must sit alongside national policy.
As Nathan shared: “Schools are doing everything they can to support families, but they cannot and should not, be expected to do this alone.
The NSPN exists to give schools the backing, funding and confidence to respond to hunger in a way that is sustainable, dignified and rooted in their communities.”
We’re grateful to BBC Look North for helping amplify the voices of schools, families and children and for highlighting the urgent need to act.
If you’d like to learn more about the National School Pantry Network, support our work, or help us reach more schools in 2026, we’d love to hear from you.
Together, we can make sure no child’s learning, or future, is limited by hunger.
