Fellow's Profile
Nathan Atkinson
Fellow's Profile
Nathan Atkinson
Shifting the dial on poverty and poor health in UK schools
Fellowship
- Themes
- Focus
-
Shifting the dial on poverty and poor health in UK schools
- Countries
- Fellowship year
-
2026
- Locality
-
North East
Contact
Biography
I am the Co-founder of Rethink Food CIC, a social enterprise working with schools and communities to reduce hunger, waste and health inequality. Before this, I spent over 20 years in education, including as headteacher of a large inner city primary school in Leeds.
My Fellowship will explore how schools in Japan and Canada support children's health and wellbeing through food education, and community partnerships. I want to understand what the UK can learn from places where food is treated not just as a meal, but as part of a wider approach to learning, health and family support. This project is personal as well as professional. As a headteacher, I saw how hunger, poor nutrition and poverty affected children's energy, concentration and confidence. That experience has shaped much of my work since.
I hope to bring back practical ideas that can help strengthen the National School Pantry Network and support schools to become trusted places where families can access food, advice and long-term support. My aim is to help build a more joined-up approach where every child has the foundations they need to learn, grow and thrive.
Disclaimer
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
Disclaimer
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
