Our Tutors

Tom Herbert is a fifth-generation baker, social entrepreneur, and co-founder of The Long Table, a pay-as-you-can community restaurant with sites in Stroud and Cirencester. Tom’s work is rooted in the belief that everyone, regardless of their means, deserves access to delicious, nutritious food shared in the company of others. The Long Table combines radical hospitality with a commitment to sustainability, creating spaces where food acts as a bridge between people, nurturing meaningful connection, dignity, and hope.

With over 30 years of experience in the food world, including helping to run his family’s 100-year-old business Hobbs House Bakery, Tom has always championed local, seasonal, and regenerative food systems. Through The Long Table, Tom and the team are transforming food systems into forces for good, creating skills pathways into employment and employee ownership, reducing waste, supporting small-scale producers, and addressing the societal and ecological impacts of food.

Tom’s passion is fuled by the experience that amazing things happen when we eat together, and one great outcome of this is the building of resilient communities. He is dedicated to sharing his journey and learnings to inspire and equip others. Alongside the team, they are spearheading a movement to reimagine food systems as tools for positive change, feeding change, one bite at a time.

Tom lives in Stroud with his family and continues to experiment with how food can nurture connection, sustainability, and social transformation.