This sub-project will combine existing council data with new data, collected by our team, to explore health outcomes and inequalities across the areas of Southampton, New Forest and the Isle of Wight, and among the people who use food aid services. We will also analyse the nutrient profile of the food available in food pantries and assess how this changes over the course of the project as we work to get healthier food into the pantries.

We will use secondary data, collected and held by local councils, to understand the prevalence of health outcomes and inequalities across different neighbourhood areas. Outcomes of interest will include childhood obesity prevalence, food insecurity, mental health and uptake of government assistance. We will assess these measures at the start of the project and track them as the project progresses.

Our team of community researchers (recruited in sub-project 2) will collect data relating to a range of health and wellbeing outcomes to understand how common these issues are among people who use food aid services. We will collect data relating to wellbeing, food security, social connectedness, and dietary behaviours.

To assess whether the FAIR-food interventions improve the quality of pantry food, we will analyse the nutritional value of a sample of food pantry items at the start of the project and repeat the analysis over 18 months. This will show whether supply chain changes have contributed to greater availability of healthier food within the food pantries.

We will also conduct interviews with food aid partners, food suppliers and local government representatives to understand their perspectives and experiences of the interventions that are implemented as part of the project.

This sub-project will aim to understand how surplus food moves between suppliers (including retailers) and food aid providers, and develop an online platform to improve this supply chain while also prioritising healthier food options. The need for such a platform was highlighted in previous discussions with food aid providers.

First, we will map the existing supply chain of food aid to understand how food moves from suppliers to food aid providers. We will aim to identify areas in the supply chain that function well and areas prone to issues such as delays and capacity limitations. We will then work with our project partners to build and enhance our network of food suppliers, such as local growers and supermarkets. Through this food supplier network, we will work to increase the amount of nutrient-dense foods (e.g., fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, eggs) that are supplied to local food pantries, taking into consideration the availability of storage facilities for chilled and frozen foods.

We will then work with our food aid project partners to co-design and introduce an easy-to-use online logistics platform. The aim of this platform will be to increase the supply and make it easier to distribute food among food aid partners.

We are partnering with Southampton Voluntary Services to carry out community-led research. In each district, we will recruit and train six local community researchers (18 in total). These community researchers will develop research questions relating to local food aid priorities. They will then be supported to collect and analyse data relating to these priority areas to understand local drivers of food aid and identify potential interventions.

In the second year of the project, all community researchers will join a workshop with the food aid and local government project partners, to co-design practical interventions to improve the quality of food aid and support the health of those using it. These interventions will be implemented in the food pantry settings and the impacts evaluated through sub-projects 1 and 4.

The community-researcher teams will play an important role in the dissemination of the FAIR-food research findings. They will be supported to share their findings and details of the newly introduced interventions through posters, policy briefs, and presentations delivered to policy-makers, food pantries, and other local community groups.

In this sub-project, we will aim to model the potential impacts of the FAIR-food interventions. We will work with food aid stakeholders and project partners to map how actions within the food aid system relate to health outcomes. We will then map anticipated future scenarios for health outcomes if no changes are made within the systems. We will also map anticipated future scenarios of introducing the FAIR-food interventions. Stakeholders and project partners will agree on what they consider success and acceptable trade-offs.

We will then use data collected through sub-projects 1, 2, and 3 to quantify the relationships within the maps and identify which pathways may be most likely to achieve the desired health outcomes. This modelling activity will allow partners to explore the potential impacts associated with any changes they may make within the food aid system and to compare the population health outcomes associated with different scenarios.

In addition to academic papers and reports, we aim to develop a number of practical tools that can be used nationally by other organisations to help improve access to healthy food and reduce health inequalities. These tools will be available for communities and councils across the country, including:

1. An online platform connecting local food suppliers with food pantries, making it easier to offer healthier food options.
2. A toolkit of resources to help councils and pantries collect information about diet and health, run new initiatives, and track their impact.
3. Step-by-step guidance on setting up food networks and using the online platform, based on our own experiences.
4. Videos and online resources to support anyone using the toolkits and platform in the future.