Investing in children's health: How can we build a healthier food environment for children?

In 2021–22, over 23% of Year 6 children in the UK were living with obesity.  

Greenbank’s stewardship and engagement lead, Sophie Lawrence, hosted a live lunchtime webinar which looked in detail at the issue of children's health and asked the question: How can we build a healthier food environment for children?

Sophie was joined by two experts in this field: Anna Taylor, executive director at The Food Foundation and Alisha Mulhall, portfolio manager at Impact on Urban Health, part of Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation.

A recording of the session is available to watch below.

Speakers and biographies

Sophie Lawrence 
Stewardship and Engagement Lead, Rathbone Greenbank Investments 

Sophie joined Rathbone Greenbank in January 2020 as a senior ethical, sustainable and impact researcher, and has recently moved into a new role as Greenbank’s stewardship and engagement lead. She is responsible for the delivery of key engagement projects, building relationships with external partner organisations and shaping Greenbank’s engagement strategy, priorities and reporting. She started her career at Barclays Bank in 2013 and most recently spent three years at KKS Advisors, a strategy consultancy in London, where she led a team specialising in sustainable and impact investment. She holds an MSc from Imperial College London in Environmental Technology and a BSc in Geographical Sciences from the University of Bristol.

Alisha Mulhall 
Portfolio Manager at Impact on Urban Health, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation 

Alisha Mulhall has experience in a broad range of roles and organisations across the social impact sector, in the UK and internationally. Alisha is currently a portfolio manager at Impact on Urban Health and works on the Children’s Health and Food and the Multiple Long Term Conditions programmes. Her portfolios support ventures, entrepreneurship, and participatory grant making projects that tackle health inequity.

Anna Taylor 
Executive Director, The Food Foundation

Anna joined The Food Foundation as its first executive director in 2015 after five years at the Department for International Development. At DFID Anna led the policy team on nutrition and supported the delivery of the UK’s global commitments to tackle undernutrition.  
Before joining DFID Anna worked for a number of international organisations including Save the Children and UNICEF and has been at the forefront of international leadership on nutrition for several years, supporting programmes in a wide range of contexts in Africa and South Asia. Anna has also worked for the UK Department of Health. In 2014 she was awarded an OBE for her work to address the global burden of undernutrition. She did an MSc in Human Nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1994. In May 2017 Anna became a member of the London Food Board to advise the Mayor of London and the GLA on the food matters that affect Londoners. She is a board member for Veg Power and an adviser to the International Food Policy Research Institute. She served as chief independent adviser to Henry Dimbleby for the development of the National Food Strategy published in 2021. 

Green Shoots is Rathbone Greenbank’s lunchtime webinar series where we are joined by specialist guest speakers to explore a sustainable investment topic.