Memories of Anne Barnett

Memories of Anne

Anne Barnett was a passionate and influential food educator who impacted the lives of many through her teaching, advising and writing.

Anne was a strong supporter of the British Nutrition Foundation, and an important contributor to the Foundation's education programme, Food - a fact of life. 

Sadly, Anne passed away in February 2025, aged 90, but she leaves behind a legacy of knowledge and skills in the food teaching community.

We share reflections from some of those, from the food education world, who knew Anne. 

Gill Fine
Former Education & External Relations Director, British Nutrition Foundation (1986 -1995)

I had the privilege of working with Anne at the British Nutrition Foundation when we started work on the Food - a fact of life project in the late 1980s. She was a founder member of the Education Working Group and helped guide the development of the programme from the outset. Her knowledge and gentle guidance was invaluable (especially to me!). She was always supportive and made a significant contribution over many years to what became an amazingly successful education programme. A very special food educator …and a truly lovely person!
  
Stephanie Valentine
Former Deputy Director General, British Nutrition Foundation

I first met Anne in the late 1970s through our involvement with London Examination's 'O' level (and later GCSE) and 'A' levels in Food and Nutrition. She introduced me to the British Nutrition Foundation in the late 1980s, when Food-a fact of life was at its first stage of development. I attended Education Working Parties at which Anne was a leading light for many years. In the early 1990s, I joined the staff at British Nutrition Foundation to continue this programme with colleagues. Anne was immensely supportive of the work and always willing to chair conferences or help at exhibitions.
  
Around the time of her retirement in 2010, Anne was awarded the BNF Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Education. This was presented to Anne by the British Nutrition Foundation's Patron, HRH The Princess Royal.
  

Anne receiving her award from HRH The Princess Royal in 2010

Roy Ballam, School Education Consultant
Former Managing Director and Head of Education, British Nutrition Foundation

Anne Barnett wrote a number of food education books, including Examining Food Technology and Understanding ingredients. Anne was an inspiration to many, having been a food and nutrition teacher, chief examiner, author and consultant over many years. I had the pleasure of working with her on many occasions, and she was one of the original drivers for food education in schools (and Food - a fact of life, back in 1989!).

Louise T Davies, Food Teachers Centre Founder
Food Education Leader and Consultant
 
Anne was just the nicest teacher and examiner you could ever meet. She lit up the room with her kindness and blessed us all with her common sense approach and huge knowledge of the subject. She had such a passion for food teaching, we missed her so much when she retired. We were lucky to have had such a wonderful teacher in our community and her memory lives on. If we can try to be just a bit of the person she was, it will be amazing.
  

Jenny Ridgwell, Managing Director at Ridgwell Press
Former food teacher and author of books and revision guides
   
Anne and I worked together many years ago, teaching food, nutrition and cooking at many levels in a further education college. Her knowledge and skills were extensive and she played a huge role in encouraging and supporting food education in schools. We both had parallel experiences, writing school textbooks and becoming chief examiners for Home Economics, Cookery and Food and Nutrition. In the challenging and ever-changing world of food education, and ever changing names for our subject, Anne was top of her game and she taught me so much.
  
Anne was also the smartest dressed lady in the college, wearing the most stylish, fashionable clothes, even under her cookery overall. My condolences to her family and may I join in the thanks for her contribution to enhancing food education for so many throughout the UK.
  
Claire Theobald, Education Services Manager
British Nutrition Foundation 

When I joined the British Nutrition Foundation in 2005, one of my first projects was to work on an interactive version of ‘The eatwell plate’ (now the Eatwell Guide) for our education programme, Food – a fact of life. I remember attending my first meeting of the English Education Working Group to present my plans, and I can still recall Anne's sound advice and support to this day. The interactive Eatwell Guide was launched and proved hugely popular, so much so that we have continued to update it over the years, and it still exists now (albeit in a more modern form!) as the Eatwell Challenge.
  
Although Anne was working towards retirement by the time I knew her, she was still a very active supporter of the British Nutrition Foundation and Food – a fact of life. She joined us as a volunteer on several occasions at the NEC D&T education show in Birmingham, helping us to ‘man’ our stand. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Anne. She was not only extremely knowledgeable and wise, she was also good fun and great company.

If you have any memories of Anne you’d like to share, please contact Claire at c.theobald@nutrition.org.uk