Training for Healthy Food Environments (HFE) in health care systems
Overview
Health care systems globally are facing alarming levels of obesity and chronic disease, poor staff well-being, and urgently need to respond to the climate emergency. Implementing Healthy Food Environments for patients, staff and visitors in health care settings (e.g., hospitals) can help address these challenges. This training programme, now in its third year, is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to do this.
HFE Training Programme Objectives
Programme
HFE Training Programme Faculty
The HFE Training Programme will be led by a global cross-sector team of experts in different fields.
Gary is a Health Improvement Specialist at Bolton Council. In his role, Gary has worked on several initiatives to improve the health of the health care workforce, including lifestyle interventions to promote smoking cessation, exercise, and locally sourced food. His work on improving the food environment at Royal Bolton Hospital is the subject of a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) case study.
Emma Garnett is a Researcher in the Food Purchasing Team at the University of Oxford. She is investigating the efficacy of different approaches to reduce meat consumption and move to more plant-based diets. More generally, Emma is interested in how we can overcome fairly overcome economic, political and social barriers to live well within planetary boundaries.
Emma read Zoology at the University of Cambridge for her Bachelor’s degree, then spent two years studying in five different countries for an Erasmus Mundus Master in Applied Ecology. She returned to Cambridge for a PhD, researching which interventions were most effective to increase vegetarian sales in university cafeterias. Her PhD research was one of the finalists in a global Solution Search for behavioural approaches to mitigating climate change and has been profiled by national and international news organisations.
After completing her PhD, Emma completed a Fellowship at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership on evaluating the promises and pitfalls of different policies to bring about more sustainable diets, such as carbon labelling.
Thomas Kelley is current CEO of Sprink. Prior to this role, between 2018 and 2019, he was the National Clinical Advisor on Value- Based Health Care (VBHC) for the Welsh Government.
Between 2013 and 2018 he worked at the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM). He established the London office in 2014 and subsequently led ICHOM’s work in the EMEA region between 2014 and 2017. In 2017 he took overall responsibility for ICHOM’s day-to-day operations across its London and Boston offices. He also had global responsibility for ICHOM’s strategic partnerships.
Prior to working at ICHOM he practiced as a physician at Oxford University Hospitals (OUH).
He received his BSc and MD from the University of Manchester, UK and MBA from the University of Oxford, UK.
Inbar Linenberg is a nutrition science manager at ZOE and a nutrition researcher at King’s College London. In this role, she studies personalized nutrition and how it can be translated into practical advice for all individuals to help improve their health.
Inbar holds an undergraduate degree in Biology from Imperial College London and a Master of Science in Nutrition Sciences from King’s College London.
Ed is Associate Director of the Global Centre for Healthy Food Environments at Sprink, where he leads the centre’s day-to-day activities. He also works as an NHS General Practitioner (Primary Care Physician) in west London, and holds an honorary academic appointment at Imperial College London.
He combined his postgraduate medical training with academic posts at Oxford University and Imperial College London. At the latter he was Module Development Co-Lead of ‘Lifestyle Medicine and Prevention’, the UK’s first mandatory lifestyle medicine course for medical students.
Between 2015 and 2016 he was Clinical Fellow to the National Medical Director at NHS England, leading and advising on a range of policy issues. He holds degrees in Medicine and Genetics from the University of Manchester and has a Master of Public Health from Harvard University, where he was a Kennedy Scholar.
Richard is a clinical senior lecturer and experienced public health physician with a special interest in health care and health system management. He leads the Undergraduate Public Health Education (UGPH) unit within Imperial’s School of Public Health. The UGPH team delivers world-leading education, training and research across primary care and population health sciences with a focus on translation and practice.
Richard trained at Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ School of Medicine. Completing the academic foundation programme at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, he moved to Imperial College London as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Public Health Medicine. He has held a wide range of roles across the NHS, local government, national government and private sector including as Senior Policy Advisor to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Elisa Pineda is a Doctor in Epidemiology and Public Health Nutrition. She works at the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation (CHEPI) and at the School of Public Health at Imperial College London. Her current research focuses on the food environment and the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Among the projects that she is involved with are the Science & Technology in Childhood obesity Policy (STOP) Project and the NIHR Global Health Research Unit in Cardiovascular Disease & Diabetes among South Asians.
Elisa holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health Nutrition from University College London (UCL), an MSc in Nutritional Science from the Food and Development Research Centre (CIAD) in Mexico and a BSc in Chemical-Biology with a specialty in Food Technology from the University of Sonora in Mexico.
In the past, she has worked with the assessment of the food environment and its association with obesity in middle-income countries and the assessment of dietary patterns and breast cancer risk. She has also collaborated in the construction of the Global Database on the Implementation of Nutrition Action (GINA) from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and obesity projections in Europe in collaboration with the UK Health Forum.
Matt Salt currently works as a Senior Project Manager at Sprink.
Prior to working at Sprink, Matt worked for two National Health Service (NHS) organisations; UCLPartners and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust in project delivery roles. Between these appointments, he worked at the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM), developing Core Outcome Sets for multiple conditions.
He received both his BSc and Masters in Public Health from the University of Birmingham, UK.
Phil Shelley was the Chair of the NHS Food Review that was announced by the UK’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, following unfortunate deaths from hospital food containing Listeria in 2019.
Phil is now a Senior Operational & Policy Manager and National Lead for Net Zero Food for NHS England & Improvement covering a range of topics within Soft Facilities Management, including the leadership of the Review recommendations. Having served as National Chair of the Hospital Catering Association, he proactively drives collaboration between fellow organisations such as the British Dietetic Association and the Health Estates and Facilities Management Association to strengthen a holistic approach to catering services for patients, staff and visitors in health care. He has been acknowledged with the Public Sector Catering Award in 2018 and the Outstanding Service Award in 2020 by the Hospital Catering Association.
He is an ambassador for Love British Food and the Guardians of Grub as well as being a board member for Malnutrition Task Force.
Samrat Singh is a researcher at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK. He is the programme lead on agriculture-nutrition projects in the Partnership for Child Development. He is also a consultant with UN World Food Programme and World Bank.
Samrat works on nutrition, food policy and agriculture, primarily in the context of food systems and public health. He focusses on operational research and technical assistance projects. Samrat has undertaken projects in over 20 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with national and local governments and has contributed to the development of national policies and systems.
Belinda Stuart-Moonlight is a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner and one of the foremost food safety and infectious intestinal disease experts in the UK. She possesses excellent academic credentials, including a PhD (King’s College, London) and three Fellowships (CIEH, RSPH and IFST).
Belinda has worked in the field of environmental health and food safety for 30 years and established Moonlight Environmental Ltd in 2001. They are a specialist consultancy service providing businesses and organisations in the food manufacturing, catering and retail industries with legal and scientific expertise.
The bulk of her time is spent working as an expert witness, taking on criminal and civil instructions. These tend to focus on the impact to human health of food, water and the environment.
Participant feedback
Previous participants have included caters, clinicians (doctors and dieticians), public health specialists, health care managers and food industry professionals. 100% of participants to date would recommend the Training Programme to other people, and they gave the following feedback:
“Very worthwhile experience. A key strength is hearing from other colleagues. Thank you.”
“Very knowledgeable and approachable trainers!”
“I have improved my knowledge through the wide range of speakers and their video presentations and slides. I have found it really beneficial to meet and discuss online with NHS colleagues from England and Scotland.”
“I wasn’t expecting a practical element to the course, but having a project to present has helped me to frame what I am learning and begin the process of making changes to our in-patient menus.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed the programme, especially the format of in person sessions, pre-recorded lectures and 1:1 session to review my personal implementation plan. It was great to come out of the programme with a plan and clear direction of the steps to take next. The programme has also opened my eyes to many other healthy food environment projects that could be put in place in my community.”
Registration fees
Launch price discount (February 3rd – March 14th 2025)
Standard registration period (March 15th – April 27th 2025)
*Medium and large businesses: More than 50 employees. **Small businesses: 1 to 49 employees.
Registration fees – proof of status
- Verification letter from your employer/education institution that includes the dates of employment/enrolment.
- Photo of your work ID/student ID card.
- Proof of attendance at the HCA Forum 2023 (e.g. Screenshot of your booking confirmation).
Contact us
If you have any questions about the programme, please contact Ed Maile (e.maile@sprink.co.uk).
