Real Bread Campaign coordinator named Person of the Year

Sustain alliance member Slow Food in The UK has chosen Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young as its joint Person of The Year 2025. He shares the title with the late Pam Rodway, an organic farmer who helped to establish Slow Food Scotland and Soil Association Scotland.

Chris said: ‘Thank you to Shane Holland and everyone else at Slow Food UK for this award, which I’m honoured to accept on behalf of the Campaign’s network and the wider Real Bread movement.’

He went on to say: ‘This is for the farmers, millers bakers, educators, activists and everyone else behind the rise of Real Bread. I also thank my fellow Sustainers, plus our supporters, whose dough has enabled the charity to keep running the Campaign for the past 17 years.’

Shane Holland, Executive Chairman of Slow Food in the UK said: 'Our person of the year, or persons for the first time ever this year, highlight the leadership of those within our wider food community to fight for good food for everyone.'

People can learn about the Campaign’s vision, mission, activity and how to join in support of its charitable work, at www.realbreadcampaign.org 

This year’s awards

It was a double win for Real Bread, with Peter Cooks Bread in Herefordshire (led by Real Bread Campaign past ambassador Peter Cook) named Slow Food UK Producer of the Year.

• Slow Food UK Retailer of the Year: Slemish Market Garden, Ballymena
• Slow Food UK Cook of the Year: Steve Guy - The Hungry Guy 
• Slow Food UK Newcomer: Beacon Farms, Devon     
• Slow Food UK Environment & Biodiversity Award: Fordhall Farm, Shropshire
• Slow Food UK Food Product of the Year: Nduja by Shropshire Salumi
• Slow Food UK Drink Product of the Year: Paso-Primero Rosado
• Slow Food UK Special Pioneer Award: Graysons

Full details, including the national winners in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, can be found on the Slow Food in The UK website.

About 

Slow Food in the UK is a not–for–profit organisation, comprising Slow Food England, Slow Food Scotland, Slow Food Cymru and Slow Food Northern Ireland, with local groups around the UK. The organisation works to ‘promote a better way to eat, celebrating the rich food traditions of the different nations that make up the UK, and protecting our edible biodiversity.’

The Real Bread Campaign was co-founded in November 2008 by Andrew Whitley of Bread Matters (and now Scotland The Bread), and Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming, the charity that still runs the Campaign. From a simple, clear-cut definition of Real Bread, the Campaign mission is finding and sharing ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet. The Campaign works towards its vision of everyone having a realistic chance to choose Real Bread.

The Person of The Year award was selected by Slow Food in the UK’s directors. The rest of the UK-wide winners, announced on Terre Madre Day, were decided by counting more than 10,000 public nominations - each award going to the person, product or business that received the most in that category.

Chris Young has coordinated the Real Bread Campaign for the food and farming charity Sustain since April 2009. In 2013 he accepted a Young British Foodies award on behalf of the Campaign and in 2017 was inducted as the first Fellow of The School of Artisan Food.