Big Issue's 100 Changemakers of 2026: Food and nutrition

Everybody’s got to eat. With food insecurity on the rise, these groups are tackling hunger and nutrition, and creating inclusion and community through cooking.

Every year Big Issue compiles a list of 100 organisations and people who are bringing change to their community. It’s a chance to celebrate the agenda-setting activists and grassroots groundbreakers delivering change.

Head here to see the full Big Issue 100 Changemakers list

Renew Wellbeing

This is a growing UK network of cafe-style wellbeing spaces. Run by local churches,  they offer an environment for people experiencing loneliness, trauma or mental health challenges to sit, talk and take part in gentle activities. Each space also includes a quiet room for those who want calm. By welcoming people in and signposting to local health and community support when needed, Renew Wellbeing helps bridge the gap between isolation and ongoing care.

The Brick  

In Wigan and Leigh, The Brick supports people facing homelessness, financial hardship and crisis, with a focus on making life more affordable through practical, person-led support. After running a food bank for almost a decade, the charity shifted to a community shop model designed around dignity and choice. Members can access around £30 to £40 worth of food for £5; the Food Community now has around 3,000 members, with 600 households using it each month. Money from Big Issue Invest allowed The Brick to refurbish a warehouse which serves as the Multibank for Greater Manchester.

Urban Goodies CIC 

Urban Goodies is helping Coventry tackle food poverty and social exclusion by turning surplus supermarket food into nutritious meals, tailored parcels and cookery classes. In just two years, the initiative redistributed more than 140,000kg of food, supporting thousands of households through a growing network of volunteers and community partners. Its delivery service helps reach residents who are isolated or unable to access affordable fresh food easily. They also reduce stigma by offering support with dignity, while sharing practical skills around budgeting, cooking and sustainability.

Veg Power

Veg Power is a UK not-for-profit tackling one of the country’s biggest public health challenges: children not eating enough vegetables. Founded in 2019, it created the multi-award-winning Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign, reframing veg as fun and empowering rather than a battleground. Delivered with major broadcasters and schools, the campaign has generated £132 million in additional vegetable sales and 1.4 billion extra children’s portions. Veg Power uses behavioural insight and creativity to help families make healthier, affordable food choices. 

Healthy and Sustainable Places Data Service (HASP) 

HASP helps turn smart data into practical action on health and food inequality. Part of Smart Data Research UK, HASP provides secure access to high-quality data on food, lifestyle and mobility patterns, alongside maps and dashboards that make local challenges easier to understand. Its Priority Places for Food Index, developed with Which?, identifies neighbourhoods most at risk of struggling to access affordable, healthy and sustainable food, helping policymakers and local organisations target support where it is needed most.

Soul Food Edinburgh 

Volunteers cook and serve free, nourishing sit-down meals for anyone who needs them at this organisation built on dignity, warmth and connection. They served their first meal in 2014 at Ps & Gs Church in Edinburgh, and became a charity in August 2018. Each week, an average of 100 diners share meals, conversation and community, with music and art often part of the experience. Their website explains: “We believe in beautiful spaces that hold long tables and delicious, homemade food. Spaces where anyone who is hungry is fed, loved, supported, seen and heard.” Soul Food tackles two urgent challenges in modern Britain: hunger and loneliness.

Poppy’s Pantry    

Poppy’s Pantry is a Realise Futures Social Business that combines a cafe, wholefoods shop and refill centre with a strong social mission. With two locations in Suffolk and Norfolk, it provides supported work experience for adults with autism and learning difficulties, helping people build confidence, develop skills and move towards employment. Alongside its training offer, it stocks vegetarian and vegan products, including specialist dietary options, and champions low-waste shopping through weigh-and-save and refill options that reduce single-use plastics. As their nominator wrote, the team’s professionalism and the support offered to learners is deeply impressive.

Clare Donovan, Cooking Champions    

Run by Donovan, Cooking Champions combines food support with a space for people facing poverty or loneliness. Based in a disused church with a kitchen in Enfield, the project runs a weekly food bank and a free Thursday lunch for anyone who attends. Donovan also delivers practical cooking sessions, sharing budget-friendly recipe ideas and creating a social space. During Covid, she and volunteers delivered food parcels and ran a takeaway service to raise funds, reinvesting any profit back into the charity.

Islington Foodbank    

Supporting families in one of England’s child poverty hotspots, Islington Foodbank hands out thousands of emergency food parcels each year. Since opening in June 2015, the charity has helped feed over 46,000 people, with 5,216 parcels distributed last year alone. In 2025, its work was threatened by a legal dispute with Islington Council over vital storage space at the Highbury Roundhouse site, putting the service at risk. After widespread support, the council dropped its court bid, securing its immediate future and allowing volunteers to continue supporting local people in crisis.

Read more:

• Why Wates are the perfect partners for the Big Issue 100 Changemakers of 2026

NIPPERS 

During the school holidays, NIPPERS provides childcare and meals for children who might otherwise go without. Based in Newhaven, the project supports around 40 children a day in summer, offering breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks, and giving parents the stability to stay in work or look for employment. NIPPERS relies heavily on donated and surplus food collected from local retailers, as well as the redistribution partners who help keep its service running at a time when demand rises sharply. By combining practical support with everyday care, Children are protected from holiday hunger when families are under pressure.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

Reader-funded since 1991 – Big Issue brings you trustworthy journalism that drives real change.

Every day, our journalists dig deeper, speaking up for those society overlooks.

Could you help us keep doing this vital work? Support our journalism from £5 a month.