The Food Chain BBC World Service

Long days, unsociable hours, a hectic and pressurised workload – the working environment for health care staff is full of challenges. Maintaining a healthy diet in those conditions is tough.

Two shift workers talk honestly about what they eat on the job, and get advice from a dietician.

Ruth Alexander speaks to Scott Christmas, who’s on his eighth year of overnight shifts, to Tom Gibbons, a paramedic, and to Dr Linia Patel, dietician and performance nutritionist.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: A pair of hands holding a stethoscope and an apple. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

Anyone who has taken a photo of their plate in a restaurant knows how hard it is to make food look good on camera.

An industry is dedicated to advertising food products on TV, online and in print. What does it take to make a burger look delicious, desirable and realistic? And, most importantly, is any of the food in adverts real?

In this programme, Ruth Alexander meets a food stylist, a food photographer, and a director of food commercials, who share their industry’s tips and tricks. She’s joined by stylist Claire Ferrandi Smythe in Johannesburg, South Africa, photographer Sue Atkinson in London, United Kingdom and food commercials director Steve Giralt in New York, United States, who has made a name for himself with flying food and robots.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Presented by Ruth Alexander.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: A hand lifting a slice from a pizza with cheese, peppers, mushrooms and meat. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Facing the trauma of having to abandon your home because of war or climate change, how do you find solace in food that is no longer your own?

There are 10 million registered refugees in the world – probably many more - who are living this reality.

In this episode, Ruth Alexander speaks to two families – one Afghan, one Ukrainian - who know what it’s like to lose their food; and to Allison Oman Lawi, deputy director of nutrition at the World Food Programme.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Presented by Ruth Alexander.

Produced by Rumella Dasgupta.

(Image: a selection of dishes enjoyed by an Afghan family living in the UK. Credit: BBC)

Humans have been accidentally feeding wild birds for millennia; any leftover food scraps to be scooped up by opportunistic, feathered friends.

The deliberate feeding of birds, however - placing seeds out on a feeder in the garden, taking crumbs to a nearby park or lake – is a more recent, cultural phenomenon. In some countries, it has deep significance and one of the most popular ways humans interact with wild animals – and it’s big business. In other places, it’s practically unheard of.

So, why do humans feed wild birds?

In this programme, Ruth Alexander delves into the many aspects of this human-animal interaction and asks the question; who’s benefiting more, the birds or us? Ruth speaks to urban ecologist, Dr Darryl Jones, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and to keen bird feeders Dan DeBaun, in Minnesota, US; Fung Sing Wong in Singapore; Bylgja Valtýsdóttir in Reykjavík, Iceland; and Antony Tiernan, in Surrey, UK.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: Blue tit on garden feeder. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

How do you make Michelin Star-level food, for hundreds of people, in a kitchen you just built in someone’s garden, and with no access to cooking gas? That’s just a typical scenario facing chefs in the world of high end mass catering.

In this episode, we hear from John Downey, the Catering Manager at the Web Summit tech conference, on the pressures of feeding high profile figures, and VIPs who've spent $26,000 on a ticket.

We also hear from Matt and Ted Lee, authors of the book Hot Box: Inside catering, the food world's riskiest business. They tell us about the stresses and often extraordinary challenges of providing high end food, at scale, at some of the USA’s most fancy weddings and galas.

Presenter: Marie Keyworth
Producer: Sarah Treanor

(Picture: A chef's hand, putting the final touches to some dishes. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Food banks have operated for decades in North America and Europe. They are generally operated as non profits, connecting food businesses that have waste with individuals, families and charities that need food.

In 2006 there was just one African food bank in Egypt. A second opened in South Africa in 2009. Today there are around twenty five across the continent.

In this programme we look at how African countries have adapted food banks to their needs, and hear how they address criticisms that the food bank model itself is flawed when it comes to addressing food poverty.

We ask Nairobi based reporter Michael Kaloki to spend a day with Food Banking Kenya, and its founder and CEO John Gathungu. Michael visits their warehouse storage, meets small holder farmers donating surplus food, and speaks to women living in some of Nairobi’s informal settlements that rely on food donations.

Ruth Alexander speaks to Elijah Addo, who founded one of Africa’s first food banks in 2015, Food for All Africa in Ghana. Gaby Kafarhire at The Global FoodBanking Network, based in Chicago in the United States, talks about the particular challenges African food banks face. And researcher Gareth Haysom at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town shares his concerns about the current system.

Presented by Ruth Alexander.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

Additional reporting by Michael Kaloki in Nairobi.

(Image: a food bank worker lifting a crate of vegetables onto a truck. Credit: BBC)