FoodSEqual-Health (FS-Health) is a daughter research project of FoodSEqual, funded by the TUKFS SPF programme. The project ran from July 2023 to December 2024 and has looked at the feasibility of embedding the Fresh Street intervention (provision of non means tested fruit and vegetable paper vouchers) into disadvantaged communities in Reading and Plymouth. Participatory research work in both communities as part of the main FoodSEqual project identified the desire of citizens to eat more fruit and vegetables and acknowledged community feedback that food insecurity and cost have prevented many from consuming sufficient of fruit and veg portions per day to improve their diet and reduce the risks of experiencing diet-related disease and the consequential burden on health and social care services.
Key research questions were
FS-Health has funded the provision of Fresh Street vouchers to households in both communities. It has also supported the running of an online ordering and bespoke fruit and vegetable stall in Whitleigh, Plymouth and a similar stall in Whitley, Reading engaging with community hubs Four Greens Community Trust and the Salvation Army in Plymouth and Whitley Community Development Association (WCDA) in Reading to facilitate these activities. At both sites, householders have been able to use their vouchers to purchase fresh produce from local wholesalers TamarFresh in Plymouth and C A Belcher & Son in Reading at the community hubs. The ordering system and stalls have also been open for other local residents to use. Each of the outlets has also accepted cash/card payments.
The research team have monitored the footfall and voucher redemption rates across both sites and engaged with householders taking part in the study to understand their fruit and veg consumption (number of portions consumed of each) before, during and after the intervention period. In addition, householders have undertaken Food and Wellbeing Chats (24 hour recall) and, if they’ve wished, provided hair and urine samples for biomarker assessment which detect the presence of salt, sugars, fruit/veg, plant or meat based food within their diet. NHS run health checks have been available throughout the study conducted by the NHS MeetPeet team at the community centre in Reading.
The Fresh Street place-based intervention known within this project as ‘Fresh Street Community’ (FSC) has also examined the benefits of social connectivity at the two community hubs through a number of activities including cookery demonstrations, learning about composting and sharing recipe ideas and cooking tips, all within a safe social space environment helping individuals build stronger connections with their neighbours and fellow residents from the local area.
The intervention ran for nine months (Jan-Sept 2024) in Plymouth and twelve months (Nov23-Nov24) in Reading and is continuing in both locations in the short term with support from FoodSEqual and Reading Borough Council. Data collection is completed at both locations and analysis is ongoing.
Where can you find out more?
Further information about the interventions can be found here for Plymouth and Reading.
Publications
As the data analysis progresses, research findings are being shared on social media @foodsequal, at webinars, conferences, briefing notes and academic papers. These will be added to this page as they are published in the public domain. If you would like further information about the research and outputs, please contact us via the Contacts page on this website.
United Kingdom Food Security Report 2024, DEFRA: Theme 4: Food Security at Household Level, Sub-theme 3 Diet Nutrition, Case Study 1;The lived experience of food insecurity and its impact on health (page 352)
Exploring Enablers and Barriers to a Fruit and Vegetable Voucher Scheme in England: Insights from the Fresh Street Community Feasibility Study https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/3/483 Pan,J., Relton,C., Howard, L., Garg, P., Puranik, M., Thomas, M., Bradbeer,J., Sutton, R., Wagstaff, C., Pettinger, C.
FoodSEqual-Health Process Evaluation
Presentations
Fresh Street Community: Feasibility testing a community centre-based voucher scheme for fresh fruit and vegetables Food Futures Symposium University of Nottingham May 2024 Thomas M et al (2024)
Webinar series
The project team have presented three webinars sharing the concept, progress and results of the project – links to be added below shortly.