Campaign: The Great Roast Dinner Celebration
Food for Life x Knorr
Food for Life works with caterers, schools, and communities to implement sustainable and lasting change within the broken food system.
Overview:
The Great Roast Dinner Celebration was a national campaign developed in partnership with Food for Life and Knorr, designed to increase school meal uptake by celebrating the value and quality of school food.
The campaign aimed to shift perceptions among pupils and parents, encouraging movement away from packed lunches and fast food, and towards healthier, nutritious school meals. Alongside improving pupil health and wellbeing, the campaign also sought to raise awareness of both the Food for Life programme and Knorr’s commitment to sustainable, nutritious food.
I worked closely with the corporate partnerships team to help broker the partnership with Unilever, securing a significant donation to support the charity’s work. I then led the campaign end-to-end, from strategy through to delivery.
"Lorna is a talented strategist who knows how to turn complex goals into successful, impactful campaigns. She has a real knack for engaging stakeholders and advocating for the brand in a way that drives support and results.
Lorna was outstanding when she supported the fundraising team to build and strengthen our corporate partnership with Unilever (Knorr). She also led the creation and deliver of the corporate-funded campaign that directly supported Food for Life's objectives. Her ability to collaborate across teams helped elevate the Food for Life brand and consistently deliver great outcomes.
I highly recommend Lorna for her strategic vision, leadership, and ability to build meaningful partnerships."
Jessica Stickland, Senior Corporate Partnerships Manager, Food for Life
The Challenge:
The campaign needed to deliver against multiple objectives:
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Increase school meal uptake across diverse school settings
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Positively reposition school food among pupils, parents and caterers
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Engage multiple audiences, including schools, local authorities, caterers and media
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Balance brand visibility for a corporate partner within a values-led charity campaign
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Deliver national impact through a decentralised, school-led activation model
My Approach
I designed a scalable, insight-led campaign built around existing school behaviour, leveraging the popularity of weekly roast dinners and structuring activity around key moments in the academic year to maximise engagement. I developed and delivered multi-channel content, including social, email, direct mail and media materials, alongside a suite of accessible resources for schools and caterers. Working closely with Food for Life, Unilever and delivery partners, I led stakeholder engagement, managed spokespeople and used audience insight to shape messaging. I also developed and executed a phased media strategy, securing coverage and creating compelling stories from participating schools.
Impact
The Great Roast Dinner Celebration successfully positioned school food as something to be celebrated—driving both engagement and behaviour change.
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National media coverage across education, trade and regional outlets, including features in key sector publications and regional press, reaching an estimated 2–3 million people
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High levels of school engagement, with hundreds of schools participating in campaign moments throughout the academic year
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Increased visibility for Food for Life and Knorr among target audiences, strengthening both brand recognition and credibility
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Strong partner outcomes, including delivery against corporate partnership objectives and securing ongoing relationship value
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Practical, reusable campaign assets that continued to support school engagement beyond the campaign lifecycle
The campaign demonstrated how a simple, insight-led idea—grounded in existing behaviours—can deliver meaningful impact at scale, combining strategic partnerships, compelling storytelling and practical implementation.
