EDITOR’S COMMENT Last week I gave a teaser for a session I was gearing up to chair at UKREiiF that I said was my most anticipated of the conference. This week I want to talk more about it, and why I think it was the most important discussion I’ve been part of in Leeds this week.
We all talk (and write) a lot about the change that real estate can bring about in the communities it’s a part of and that it builds, and a Savills-led session on tackling food insecurity and childhood food poverty was a perfect example of the good that can be done.
I didn’t know about the work of Rethink Food until I was asked to chair this discussion. But my wife is a primary school teacher in south London, where we live, and she knows how many children aren’t getting the food they need, not least to start the day. That affects their learning, their families and communities.
Rethink Food is a not-for-profit with a focus on fighting food insecurity and food waste. The team, led by co-founders Nathan Atkinson and Kevin Mackay, works with schools, communities and businesses to help young people better understand the connection between food, health and sustainability.
Last year the organisation rescued and redistributed more than 500 tonnes of surplus food, creating more than 900,000 meals for families, schools and communities. Now it’s launching the National School Pantry Network, which will provide funding and support to schools, with each school receiving direct funding to provide food support for families for every £5,000 raised.
I would defy anyone in Savills’ Leeds HQ this week not to have been affected listening to Nathan tell his story – I saw people in the audience genuinely moved to tears. As a teacher in a school serving a deprived community in 2014, Nathan saw children who couldn’t wait for their half-term holiday to end because it meant they could get a proper meal at school again.
“You want to see true grit, see a child who’s been up till 4 in the morning because of a crazy party at their house, they haven’t eaten since lunch the day before at school, and they’re coming in, bringing some of their younger siblings to school, and then they’re sitting there and you’re [as a teacher] going, ‘Right, why are you not learning at the rate you’re supposed to be?’” Nathan said. “I went on a mission to remove hunger as a barrier to learning.”
That mission led to the establishment of Rethink Food, which Savills has been working with since 2019. Speaking at the same event, Olivia Sutcliffe, an associate director in the social value team within Savills Earth, called for real estate to step up across the board, offering space to community youth clubs, for example, with properly equipped kitchens.
“As a developer, there’s an opportunity to directly support with planning, providing all these resources,” she said. “There are so many different ways you can help, but the only way you’re going to effectively be able to do this is through partnerships. Partnerships are absolutely of paramount importance when you’re trying to support communities. We’re walking the walk by doing it through partnerships … not just financial donations, but thinking about truly building long-term partnerships and long-term stewardship.”
A final point: it made me happier than I can explain to see how packed the room was at this session. UKREiiF delegates have a lot of options for what to attend, and plenty of panels that might feel a little more “aligned” with the day-to-day business of real estate. But on Tuesday we filled a room with delegates who trekked away from the conference centre to Savills’ HQ and showed this wasn’t a conversation they were willing to sit out. If you were in the room, you already know how powerful the Rethink Food story is. If you weren’t, please look into it and support it if you can.
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