From Eat Club to Food System Live: What Schools Are Teaching Us About Food

Over the past year, working with schools through Schools Food Web, Eat Club and Food System Live sessions, one thing has become clear: when children are given the space to explore food properly, they don’t just change what they eat — they change how they think about food.

Rather than focusing narrowly on “healthy choices”, this work supports pupils to understand food as a system — shaped by farming, processing, marketing, time, access and culture. This approach reflects the core outcomes of the Schools Food Web, now embedded within Food System Live goals.

Ultra-Processed Foods in Context

Recent public health research has brought renewed attention to ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and their links to poor health outcomes. In schools, UPFs are part of everyday reality — but experience shows that children engage far more meaningfully when UPFs are explored as a product of the food system, rather than framed as “bad foods”.

When pupils understand why UPFs dominate — convenience, cost, shelf life, marketing and time pressure — they begin to see that food choices are shaped by systems, not just individual behaviour.

Eat Club: Skills, Confidence and Belonging

Eat Club creates a practical, low-pressure environment where children create, taste and talk about food together. It directly supports Food System Live goals by:

• Rebuilding basic food skills and confidence

• Encouraging curiosity, tasting and sensory learning

• Creating inclusive, positive food experiences

• Reducing fear, stigma and shame around food

For many pupils, Eat Club is their first experience of food as something shared, creative and enjoyable — laying the foundations for healthier relationships with food.

Food System Live: Making the Bigger Picture Visible

Food System Live sessions build on this foundation, helping pupils connect everyday food to wider social, environmental and economic systems. These sessions support Schools Food Web outcomes by enabling pupils to:

• Understand how food moves from field to plate

• Explore links between food, health, climate and inequality

• Question food marketing, availability and power

• Develop critical thinking and civic awareness

It’s within this wider context that conversations about UPFs really land — not as isolated products, but as outcomes of a food system designed for efficiency rather than nourishment.

What This Approach Achieves

Together, Eat Club and Food System Live move schools beyond one-off nutrition messages towards whole-school food literacy. Over the past year, this has led to:

• Increased confidence in cooking and tasting

• More informed, thoughtful conversations about food choices

• Greater awareness of fairness, access and sustainability

• Early shifts in school food culture, language and expectations

These outcomes align directly with Food System Live goals: empowered learners, healthier food environments, and deeper understanding of how food systems shape lives.

Impact

Who:

• Primary-aged pupils across multiple schools

• Teaching staff, support staff and wider school communities

What:

• Eat Club practical cooking and tasting sessions

• Food System Live interactive learning sessions

• Integrated learning across health, wellbeing, climate and food systems

Outcomes:

• Improved food confidence and basic cooking skills

• Increased understanding of food processing, including UPFs

• Stronger critical thinking around food marketing and access

• Positive engagement without fear-based messaging

• Early cultural change within school food conversations

Why it matters:Children are developing the knowledge, skills and confidence to navigate a complex food environment — supporting long-term health, wellbeing and resilience.

Call to Action for Funders

This work demonstrates what is possible when schools are supported to deliver joined-up food education — combining practical skills, systems thinking, health and wellbeing.

With further funding, Eat Club and Food System Live can be scaled, enabling more schools to:

• Embed food systems learning within the curriculum

• Reach children most affected by food inequality

• Support staff with training, resources and confidence

• Create lasting cultural change around food and health

Investment at this stage is not about short-term behaviour change — it is about building lifelong food literacy and resilience.Funders have a unique opportunity to support a model that is evidence-informed, school-tested, and ready to grow.