5x15 x School Food Matters

Tim Spector is a professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London and honorary consultant physician at Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals. He is a multi-award-winning expert in personalised medicine and the gut microbiome, and the author of numerous books, including the bestsellers Spoon-Fed and The Diet Myth. He appears regularly on TV, radio and podcasts around the world, and is one of the top 100 most cited scientists in the world. He is co-founder of the personalised nutrition company ZOE and leads the world's biggest citizen science health project, the ZOE Health study. He was awarded an OBE in 2020 for his work fighting Covid-19. His latest book is Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well.

Dan Saladino is a journalist and broadcaster who makes programmes about food for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service. His work has been recognised by the Guild of Food Writers Awards, the Fortnum and Mason Food and Drink Awards, and in America by the James Beard Foundation. Eating to Extinction was awarded the 2019 Jane Grigson Trust Award. He lives in Cheltenham but his roots are Sicilian.

Tim Lang became Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University London's Centre for Food Policy in 2021. He was Professor of Food Policy at City from 2002 to 2021 and had founded the Centre in 1994 at Thames Valley University (now University of West London). After a PhD in social psychology at Leeds University 1970-73, he became a hill farmer in the 1970s in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire which shifted his attention to food policy, where it has been ever since. For years, he's engaged in academic and public research and debate about its direction, locally to globally. He and the Centre for Food Policy at City University London work closely with scientific and civil society organisations, the latter in the UK notably through the Food Research Collaboration (run from this Centre since 2014), Sustain (which he chaired in the past), the UK Food Group (of development NGOs), and Food & Climate Research Network (Oxford University). He has written and co-written many articles, reports, chapters and books. His books include: Food Wars (with Michael Heasman, Routledge, 2015), Unmanageable Consumer (with Yiannis Gabriel, Sage, 2015), Ecological Public Health (with Geof Rayner, Routedge Earthscan, 2012), Food Policy (with D Barling and M Caraher, Oxford University Press, 2009) and the Atlas of Food (with E Millstone, Earthscan 2003/2008), which won the André Simon award 2003. He writes frequently in the media and his most recent book is Feeding Britain (Pelican, 2020).

Mother of four, Reema Reid, began her career as a school meals supervisor and teaching assistant. She went on to train as a teacher, middle leader, senior leader and is now an award-winning headteacher. As one of the very small number of black headteachers in Southwark, Reema is committed to providing an inclusive educational experience for all pupils, as well as ensuring the teaching workforce in London is representative of London’s population. During the pandemic Reema responded to the prospect of up to 40% of her pupils’ families being plunged into poverty by joining forces with School Food Matters to provide breakfast and lunch boxes for the school community. She believes that good nutrition must be embedded into the school culture and embraces all the food education opportunities that School Food Matters has to offer.

Diarmuid Gavin is an award-winning garden designer and broadcaster known for his distinctive and contemporary designs. After studying amenity horticulture at the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin in Dublin, he established his own garden design business. After twice winning the Royal Dublin Society Gold medal for garden design during the nineties, he displayed at the prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 1995 and 1996. His modern vibrant city garden in 1996 caused quite a stir, and led to a career in television where he developed an individual style in contemporary garden design. Diarmuid has worked for all the main broadcasters on both radio and television in the UK and Ireland. For 8 years, his main programme, Homefront, was broadcast by the BBC, and he has also been presenter and garden designer on other programmes. He is the author of numerous books on gardening and garden design. His latest is Gardening Together, with Paul Smyth. Diarmuid is an advocate for encouraging children to learn about gardening and growing food.