Our approach to food poverty needs to broaden

What practical measures can be taken to tackle ‘food poverty’? Hannah Lambie examines the findings of research which looked at approaches in two communities

People on low incomes find accessing appropriate good quality food particularly challenging. Along with financial constraints, they often face a number of factors including family structure, age, local transport infrastructure and retail provision.

Food poverty is a complex issue and the end of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme presented an opportunity to reflect on the particular role for regeneration in this area and to look at the work of a number of individual partnerships over the last ten years.

Recently completed research examined the work of two NDC partnerships – Braunstone in Leicester and Charlestown and Lower Kersal in Salford. Both had, at some point, carried out work on food issues including ‘cook and eat’ educational initiatives, the provision of healthy snacks, an urban allotment project, a social enterprise selling fresh fruit and vegetables out of a travelling van, and in Braunstone, the establishment a new bus service taking passengers to two different shopping destinations.

Despite all this activity, the outcomes in terms of promoting better access to healthy food were, overall, limited. Food poverty had not been a major strategic priority and in both cases there was a sense that the NDCs had faced ‘bigger issues’ which had necessarily been prioritised by the partnerships.

Projects which focused on promoting healthy behaviour, through the provision of education and guidance on things like food shopping, cooking and eating received particular emphasis from the NDC partnerships, and reported successful outcomes with the people who took part.

Both NDCs attempted to address structural barriers to food access, but they were inhibited by key factors such as poor and expensive local transport services and a lack of choice locally.

Retail provision in both areas was poor, with few local shops and those present selling a limited amount of relatively poor quality, expensive fresh produce. If you want good quality, healthy food you have to travel. In Charlestown and Lower Kersal, the NDC struggled to have an impact on local transport provision, and it remains an ongoing problem. While Braunstone did manage to establish a new bus route, there was still an issue of cost for many residents.

At a time of rising food prices, persistent levels of poverty and deprivation, and ongoing reforms to welfare provision and services, it is vital that food poverty remains on the policy agenda. The work in Leicester and Salford suggests a number of ways in which areas can respond.

Firstly, regeneration policy should incorporate the alleviation of food poverty as an explicit strategic priority for all area based programmes. This would ensure it becomes a key part of regeneration work and enables policymakers and local practitioners to be held accountable for the pursuit of effective local initiatives. Food poverty should be understood more broadly than simply as a health issue and become a focus for all aspects of regeneration.

Secondly, policymakers should place more emphasis on promoting better local retail and transport infrastructures. Focus should be placed on more shops which sell good quality fresh produce (which is culturally appropriate for the local population), at affordable prices.

Finally, given the range of factors influencing food poverty from a number of different scales (global, national, local and household) regeneration needs to become part of a much wider range of policy solutions to food poverty. National and local level policymakers need to work together, across departments and with other sectors, to influence the variety of structural determinants which constrain people’s food experiences.

• For further information about the research contact h.lambie@coventry.ac.uk or call her on 024 7679 5776.