By Dr Marsha Smith, Centre for Business in Society and Professor Sally Hibbert
Funded by the Nottingham Food Systems Institute, staff at Coventry and Nottingham University have completed a project to build understanding of the challenges and innovation in ‘More than Food’ meal services, focusing on initiatives in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County. The project was undertaken in collaboration with Marsha Smith, from the Centre for Business & Society at Coventry University and Moira Taylor, from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham.
The full report and policy brief provide details of their project and the recommendations, to be used as a roadmap for change by researchers, policy makers, practitioners and other stakeholders engaged in the development of these meal services.
To conclude their work, the researchers have written a blog to explain why these meal services are vital for communities, the challenges and opportunities for innovation, and how this insight can lead to impact. For more information on this topic visit The Food Systems Institute website where the policy report and brief are hosted.
Food insecurity and social isolation combine to affect diet and health inequalities
The Covid-19 pandemic and cost-of-living crisis have driven a dramatic rise in the proportion of households facing food insecurity and there is growing concern that the effects on dietary quality are exacerbating health inequalities.
People experiencing food insecurity often have diets that are inadequate, inappropriate for their nutritional needs or both, with implications for children’s development and growth and adults’ health and life expectancy. The coinciding rise in social isolation and the ways it interacts with food insecurity has received less attention, but evidence clearly indicates that social relationships protect against food insecurity and support better quality diets.
In areas such as Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County that have high levels of food poverty, enabling access to sufficient, healthy food is a pressing concern and improving access for people who are.
A role for ‘More than Food’ meal services
Community and public sector meal services such as community kitchens, ‘social eating’ groups, school holiday clubs, and ‘meals at home’ services are at the forefront of understanding and responding to this need.
These services – known as ‘More than Food’ services – provide a nutritious meal, typically at a low cost, alongside social opportunities and support. Locally their value in addressing health disparities is recognised and they have been integrated into strategic initiatives such as the Nottinghamshire Food Charter and Nottingham City’s Eating and Moving for Good Health strategy.
The impetus to adapt and innovate
Maintaining, developing and scaling these services to meet rising demand poses significant challenges, especially in the face of rising food prices, operational costs and funding pressures. They manage a complex set of activities, especially around the supply and processing of food, and the planning and preparation of meals. Services have demonstrated an ability to adapt, and have shown significant ingenuity in managing these activities, often with limited capacity.
For instance, many voluntary and community sector initiatives are reliant on volunteers who undertake diverse activities to source and process food. None the less, recent pressures have created a new impetus to innovate, form partnerships and think strategically to work around the challenges faced in providing nutritious and affordable meals to those in need.
Creating connections and co-learning
To understand these challenges and identify opportunities, researchers at the University of Nottingham and Coventry University led a project to create connections across services, co-develop understanding and explore opportunities for innovation that can assist in sustaining and extending ‘More than Food’ meal services.
The project centred on a stakeholder workshop and interviews, run during the summer of 2023. Reflecting insight gain through these activities, the project report characterises different types of services, contrasting their strengths and challenges. It presents illustrative examples of innovative local partnerships that have been developed to address challenges and extend services, for example, a social eating group partnering with a housing association to provide meals for residents, and a local charity using the catering kitchen of local Fire and Rescue Services to make meals at-scale.
The report also emphasises the benefits of taking a ‘systems’ approach which connects organisations, departments, agendas and stakeholders who are all involved in trying to combat health inequalities associated with poor diets.
A series of recommendations provide a roadmap for local policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders involved in developing ‘More than Food’ meal services. It highlights three areas of activity to enable collective local initiatives:
- developing and using of local data and insight
- facilitating collaboration
- promoting policy approaches that engage citizens and stakeholders across local systems
Discussion of the way forward recognises the value of combining evidence-based and ‘test and learn’ approaches. Having the freedom to innovate affords critical opportunities to develop shared learning about needs and assets across communities, pointing to traditional and new partners that can improve food access and enable access to resources such as kitchens, new food sources and nutritional expertise.
It also advocates the co-design of a strategic shared vision and action plan.
For more details, visit the Food System Institute website for the full report and policy brief which details their project and the recommendations made.
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