Not-for-profit brings its operations under one roof for first time

Rethink Food, a not-for-profit food education and redistribution organisation, has moved into a 6,000 sq ft site in Holbeck, Leeds.

It is launching a food education schools programme across the UK and gearing up for team expansion.

The organisation was previously spread over three sites in Leeds with its office in White Rose Centre and its food redistribution hub and warehousing spread at two other locations.

Its new Rethink Food Hub accommodates its growing warehouse, office, digital studio and production teams enabling them to work collaboratively under one roof for the first time.

Rethink Food was established in 2014 by former teachers Nathan Atkinson and Kevin Mackay to tackle the immediate need of reducing food hunger as a barrier to learning.

Since then, it has evolved its purpose to also become an education provider.

The organisation is about to embark on a recruitment drive to employ four more school liaison managers and it is working with Leeds Trinity University and Filmbuddy to offer placement and apprenticeship opportunities to students in the digital sector.

Atkinson said: “We need to focus people’s attention on the issue of food education. There is so much more work needed in this area.

“By giving children and young people the tools to understand the importance of healthy eating and physical activity we can make a positive difference to the health and well-being of young people now and in the future.

“Our ambition to deliver 10 million hours of food education into 7,000 schools is not for the faint hearted.

“We know this is an ambitious target and we’ll have to move mountains to deliver this.

“But we absolutely believe that teaching the next generation about the food lifecycle from seed to plate, sustainably eating, food waste and how we can make better food and lifestyle choices to look after their bodies and the planet means that we can change their future for the better.”