Professor Greta Defeyter

Professor

School: Communities and Education

Greta Defeyter is Professor of Developmental Psychology in the department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing. Greta is the founder and the Director of the ‘Healthy Living’ Lab at Northumbria University and has spent the last 20 years researching food insecurity, social injustice, school feeding programmes and holiday hunger programmes in the UK. She has received funding from multiple sources and has published numerous papers on school breakfast clubs, school food programmes and holiday hunger programmes in the UK. She is now a recognised expert in this area and in 2015, she was made a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in recognition of her research with children living in areas of social and economic deprivation. More recently, she joined a prestigious line up of award winners, including Jamie Oliver, by winning a Food Heroes Award from Sustain for her research on school breakfast clubs and holiday hunger programmes. In 2020 she was recognised, by the Big Issue, as one of the top 100 change makers for her research and policy impact on childhood food poverty in the UK. Greta has advised the DfE on the Holiday Activities and Food Progamme (HAF) and is a member of the British Psychological Society Expert Reference Group-From Poverty to Flourishing, a Subject Expert on the American Psychological Association’s-Equity Flattens the Curve Campaign, a civic commissioner on the Gateshead Poverty Truth Commission, an executive member of the North East Child Poverty Commission, a member of the Royal Society of Medicine Health and Food Council, and a trustee of Feeding Britain.

Email Greta

@livinghealthy

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Greta is the founder and the Director of the ‘Healthy Living’ Lab at Northumbria University and has spent the last 20 years researching food insecurity, social injustice, school feeding programmes and holiday hunger programmes in the UK. She has received funding from multiple sources and has published numerous papers on school breakfast clubs, school food programmes and holiday hunger programmes in the UK.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Can co-design deal with policy disputes?, Spencer, N., Yee, J., Defeyter, M. 29 Jan 2026, In: Policy Design and Practice
Associations of children's mental wellbeing and the urban form characteristics of their everyday places, Severcan, Y., Ozbil Torun, A., Defeyter, M., Bingol, H., Akın, I. 1 May 2025, In: Cities
A study comparing positive benefits for parents, and their children, of children attending the UK’s Holiday Activities and Food programme to parents of non-attendees, Defeyter, M., Stretesky, P., Pepper, G. 25 Feb 2025, In: Frontiers in Public Health
Challenges and opportunities for inclusive, equitable and accessible school holiday clubs for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), Hatch, L., Tinner, L., Khofi-Szeremley, C., Darling, F., Clohessy, S., Tanner, J., Robinson, H., Jago, R., Summerbell, C., Mazzoli-Smith, L., Pallan, M., Defeyter, M., Murphy, M. 29 Sep 2025, In: International Journal for Equity in Health
Cross-National Experiences on Child Health and Development during School Age and Adolescence: The Next 7,000 Days, Schultz, L., Hangoma, P., Jamison, D., Bundy, D., Defeyter, M. 6 Mar 2025, Country-Led Priority Setting for Health, Washington,, US, The World Bank
The Generating Excellent Nutrition in UK Schools (GENIUS) network: working towards a more health-promoting food and nutrition system in UK schools, Woodside, J., O’Kane, N., Pallan, M., Evans, C., Defeyter, M., Brownlee, I., Murphy, M., Parnham, J., Lalli, G., Bryant, M., McKinley, M., Gallagher, A., Schliemann, D., McConnell, C., Olgacher, D., Spence, S. 1 Sep 2025, In: Proceedings of the Nutrition Society
The importance of food in studying economic hardship and well-being: Does food insecurity mediate the associations between income and stress and well-being in a UK representative sample?, Pepper, G., Defeyter, M., Stretesky, P., Mann, E. 1 May 2025, In: Journal of Public Health: From Theory to Practice
What does transformation in Higher Education research culture look like? Evidence from action research within a diverse post-1992 department, Mulholland, K., Robson, I., Nichol, D., Counihan, C., Gray, W., Luke, C., Meller, S., Anderson, A., Heslop, K., Davies, J., Graham, P., Johnson, S., Hwang, S., Chan, W., Johnson, E., Hudson, K., Haighton, C., Littlefair, D., Defeyter, M., Kellehear, A., Atkinson, J., Johnson, M. 30 Oct 2025, In: Routledge Open Research
A brief review of Secondary School Food Policy (SSFP) approaches in the UK from 2010 to 2022, Lali, G., Smith, K., Woodside, J., Defeyter, G., Skafida, V., Morgan, K., Martin, C. 21 Feb 2024, In: Nutrition and Food Science
A country that works for all children and young people: An evidence-based plan for supporting physical activity and healthy nutrition with and through education settings, Bryant, E., Daly-Smith, A., Eddy, L., Wood, M., Bryant, M., Chalkley, A., Chawner, S., Copley, C., Defeyter, M., Fildes, A., Foweather, L., Greatwood, H., Kininmonth, A., King, R., Kolehmainen, N., Mahdi, S., Quarmby, T., Quirk, H., Round, E., Simpson, A., Staniforth, C., van den Bree, M., Bunting, C., Holmes, I., Kielty, B., Loftus, K., Norman, K., Oberg, R., Toop, J., Gunning, L., Merrick, N., Shaw, J., Mon-Williams, M., Shore, E., Roker, M., Morehead, M., Brown, C. 1 May 2024

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Birmingham - HAF Plus – Co-designing a HAF Plus Service Blueprint and Policy, with Secondary School Pupils and Experts, of Holiday and Out of School Provision, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), 01/08/22 - 30/06/23
FB - HAF Plus – Co-designing a HAF Plus Service Blueprint and Policy, with Secondary School Pupils and Experts, of Holiday and Out of School Provision, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), Feeding Britain, 01/08/22 - 30/06/23, £9,929.00
Gateshead - HAF Plus – Co-designing a HAF Plus Service Blueprint and Policy, with Secondary School Pupils and Experts, of Holiday and Out of School Provision, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council, 01/08/22 - 30/06/23, £18,686.00
Insights North East, Charles, D. (Principal Investigator), Defeyter, G. (Co Investigator), Research England, 01/08/22 - 31/07/25, £989,422.00
London - HAF Plus – Co-designing a HAF Plus Service Blueprint and Policy, with Secondary School Pupils and Experts, of Holiday and Out of School Provision, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), 01/08/22 - 30/06/23
Northumberland - HAF Plus – Co-designing a HAF Plus Service Blueprint and Policy, with Secondary School Pupils and Experts, of Holiday and Out of School Provision, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), 01/08/22 - 30/06/23
An evaluation of Kitchen Social:l: the impact on individuals and communities, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), Mayor’s fund for London, 08/01/18 - 07/01/21, £31,138.00
Summer Holiday Project, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), Big Lottery Fund, 01/05/17 - 31/03/18, £70,000.00
Online Breakfast club training (2nd cohort), Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), Kelloggs, 01/09/16 - 31/08/17, £55,140.00
An evaluation of the provision of holiday clubs and after school clubs for 2-18 year olds in terms of health, social, economic and educational outcomes, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), Brake Bros Limited, 11/01/16 - 10/01/19, £36,545.00

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Oral presentation: "Because we are coming here, it's making my life easier" Children's views on what difference holiday clubs make to them 2018
Oral presentation: Holiday hunger, summer learning loss and the importance of summer clubs in tackling these phenomena 2018
Oral presentation: Healthy Living Lab: Public Engagement 2017
Oral presentation: A NEET Solution? Addressing issues of Social Justice through an education project for marginalised youth delivered through Premiership Rugby Clubs 2017
Oral presentation: A NEET Solution? The impact of an education project for marginalised youth delivered through Premiership Rugby Clubs 2017
Oral presentation: School Feeding Programmes 2017
Oral presentation: Holiday hunger: Summer learning loss and wellbeing 2017
Invited talk: Universal free school breakfast: A socioecological perspective of breakfast behaviours in a deprived town within the North-East of England, UK 2017
Oral presentation: Health eating in schools: School breakfast clubs and holiday hunger 2016
Oral presentation: Holiday hunger: The effect on social relationships and educational attainment 2016

PGR Supervision

Rosanna King Beyond the Chartwells Kitchen: An Investigation into the Implementation and Efficacy of a School-based Food Education Programme Start Date: 09/01/2023