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Public institutions like schools, hospitals and prisons serve millions of meals every day. Could they hold the key to transforming our food systems for healthier communities, a more sustainable planet and a fairer economy?

On Tuesday 18 February Professor Kevin Morgan, author of Serving the Public: The Good Food Revolution in Schools, Hospitals and Prisons joined us as we discovered how public procurement – the purchasing decisions made by governments and institutions – can be a powerful tool for driving improvements in public health.

Nesta’s healthy life mission is committed to increasing healthy life expectancy and reducing health inequalities by collaborating with partners across the public, private, and non-profit sectors to design, test, and scale innovative solutions aimed at tackling obesity.

In conversation with Nesta's mission manager Jonathan Bone, Kevin explored how innovative strategies are already delivering impact, drawing on lessons from the UK, US, and Sweden. From Healthy Weight, Healthy Wales to Scotland’s Good Food Nation Plan, we dived into how public institutions are leading the way, what barriers remain, and the practical steps needed to overcome them.

This event was ideal for policymakers, local authorities and changemakers ready to rethink how food systems can drive meaningful, systemic change.