Acorn Awards 2026: Kate Page, Fooditude

Position Head of impact, Fooditude

Age 27

Nominator Matt Byne, director of food, Fooditude

Kate Page is helping reshape how sustainability is embedded into contract caterer Fooditude.

After joining the business in 2023 as sustainability manager, Page expanded her role, immersing herself across kitchens, suppliers, finance and client operations to better understand how decisions were made on the ground. Within a year, she had progressed to head of impact, leading long-term strategy and building a department focused on measurable behavioural change rather than just compliance. 

Her impact has been both commercial and operational. Page transformed Fooditude’s food waste programme into a structured system that reduced waste by 46% year-on-year through improved forecasting and tighter operational controls. She also introduced a sustainability grading system for snacks and drinks, embedding environmental and social criteria into purchasing decisions and strengthening supplier accountability. 

Alongside this, she has built a Net Zero 2040 roadmap, Scope 3 reporting, live impact dashboards and quarterly client reporting. Her transparent approach to communication has helped position sustainability as a practical, business-wide priority rather than a standalone initiative. 

Page also mentors colleagues, leads an internal impact champion network and has helped increase employee volunteering participation from 4% to 18%, which delivered 188 hours of community support and 65kg of litter collected in 2025.

Page’s commitment to social and food accessibility and outreach goes beyond her role. She founded and leads a monthly community meal initiative, Come Eat With Us Kitchen, and after building a relationship with a local retirement home, she secured a space and grew attendance at the kitchen from 10 to 50 people per month through outreach to food banks and community cafés.

Page has also developed a partnership with Global Generation, an educational charity supporting local young people to build skills and confidence for employment, and is a founder and organiser of a 50-member sustainability F&B network that focuses on collaborative progress.