Advisory Board

Amber lives on a small holding in Pembrokeshire and has over 20 years experience of food system change work, both on the ground and as a researcher. Her main area of expertise and interest is how to enable Wales and the UK to produce and consume more fruit and vegetables and the role small scale and short supply chains have to play.  She helped found Peas Please and is currently working freelance with Food Sense Wales, co-ordinating and doing the Action Research on the Welsh Veg in Schools project. 

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Betina Bergmann Madsen is the team lead for Strategic Procurement and Food and chief procurement officer for the municipality of Copenhagen, Denmark. Ms. Madsen is a seasoned expert in the procurement of sustainable and organic food for Copenhagen public institutional food service. Since 2001 Copenhagen has had a goal of reaching 90% organic for public meals and has an innovative and ambitious food strategy including sustainable public procurement. This strategy is part of Copenhagen’s commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Ms Madsen's commitment to systemic thinking and implementation of sustainable food procurement extends beyond the municipal level. She works closely with Denmark’s Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and Ministry of Environment to implement requirements for green tenders. She is the coordinator of a national public food procurement network whose tasks extend to incorporating SDGs into tender documents and evaluating results.

At the  European Union (EU) level she was a member of an EU Expert Group developing a legislative framework for the EU Farm to Fork Strategy. She participated in several projects including building a European network of public food purchasers, and currently, she is member of the EU Stakeholder Expert Group on Public Procurement.

In 2021 she was named a UN Food System Champion in the context of the UN Food Systems Summit and helped form a School Meals Coalition as an outcome of the summit. She works closely with WHO Europe on guidance for public procurement officers as an author of “How together we can make the world’s most healthy and sustainable public food procurement”.

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Sarah is Programmes Director for Sustain and a member of the Senior Leadership Team, having joined in in 2009 to run Capital Growth campaign, which supported 2,012 new community food growing gardens in London.

Sarah has developed several programmes at Sustain including the Big Dig, Growing Health and more recently Bridging the Gap. Her work focuses on Local Action and includes overseeing Sustainable Food Places, Good Food Economy and Sustain’s food growing programmes. Sarah also represents Sustain on the London Food Board, and co leads our fundraising and development.

Prior to Sustain her roles included running community regeneration projects, at Groundwork East London and Strategic Manager of the Newham Food Access Partnership. Sarah has a Masters in Leadership for Sustainable Development, achieved through the Forum for the Future programme.

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Hannah joined Sustain in November 2022 as Programme Manager for the Bridging the Gap programme, which aims to demonstrate ways to build better supply chains between climate and nature friendly food and people on a lower income. Hannah has a background in leading international development programmes, and community building and campaigns for socially responsible business.

Leon leads the Sustainable Food Places Network’s (SFPN) programme delivery, working with all operational staff to ensure the programme best responds to the needs and challenges of network members. This includes coordinating SFPN’s multiple workstreams and grants to members, managing budgets and overseeing communications and events.

Sarah is Co-Director and Head of Food at Soil Association Scotland. As Co-Director (alongside David McKay) Sarah is responsible for all areas of the Soil Association’s charitable work in Scotland, delivering joined-up solutions in policy and practice to the interlinked climate, nature and dietary health crises.

As Head of Food, Sarah focuses specifically on the development and delivery of Soil Association Scotland’s strategic goal to transition to healthy and sustainable diets.  Core to this is our Food for Life Scotland programme, which Sarah has worked on for a number of years. Food for Life is a nationwide Soil Association programme that works to make good food the easy choice for everyone, and in Scotland, the programme is funded by the Scottish Government. Using the Food for Life Served Here certification as a framework for change, the Food for Life Scotland team support public sector caterers to serve meals using locally sourced and nutritious ingredients.  ​ The team provide menu development, supply chain support and data analysis to caterers to facilitate more sustainable food procurement and practices using the award as a framework for change. We advocate for good food as an investment not a cost, ​and connect with policymakers and producers, caterers ​and communities to make it a priority.​

Prior to Soil Association, Sarah worked on environmental initiatives and food systems in the higher education and social enterprise sectors.

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Sarah Newton is Food System Lead at Birmingham City Council. She is on a mission to unite those behind Birmingham’s diverse food projects through the Birmingham Food Revolution movement. As Food System Lead, she facilitates the city-wide partnership delivering the co-created Birmingham Food System Strategy and utilises behavioural science to transform communities, the environment, and the economy to regenerate the city's food system.

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Jayne Jones is Chair of the Public Sector Catering Alliance, and her long term commitment is to continue to work in partnership with a range of stakeholders to make systems shifts and improvements in public sector food by taking a sustainable food systems approach. Jayne is also Assistant Director for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde with responsibility for all Soft FM Services including catering, cleaning and portering services. Over the past ten years, Jayne has participated in a number of Scottish Government steering groups including those developing Local Food Strategies, ending the need for foodbanks in Scotland and in developing proposals for the next Scottish Organic Food Action Plan.  Jayne is past Chair of ASSIST FM and is currently a member of the HCA.  Jayne was previously recognised as one of the UK Public Sector Catering's Most Influential People in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024, won the Public Sector Catey in 2023, is a 2021 Acumen Academy UK Fellow and holds an Honorary Fellowship with the University of Edinburgh Business School.

Julia Kirby-Smith is Executive Director at Better Food Traders, a non-profit CIC that empowers and equips communities, local authorities, farmers and traders to rebuild an independent, sustainable food sector. She has a strong understanding of both independent food retail (having founded an ethical grocery business in North London) and the broader issues faced by our food system. Julia is also Chair of the Eating Better, an alliance of 65 organisations working in public health, climate, nature, farming and industry to reduce meat and dairy consumption in the UK.

Miriam currently works as Community Gardens Support. She has worked for over 20 years supporting and networking community garden projects in Northern Ireland, 12 years working for Social Farms & Gardens, and in more recent years has been involved in formulating policy and establishing a Sustainable Food Partnership in Belfast. Miriam advises the Procurement for Good project on public food procurement in the context of Northern Ireland.