A new mapping tool, funded by the government, is helping to direct a mobile greengrocer to visit areas where social housing residents have limited access to fresh, nutritious food.
The Queen of Greens bus has been working to bring affordable fresh fruit and vegetables to communities across Liverpool and Knowsley since 2022 and now, new research will expand and help target their route to ensure it reaches residents in social housing who may find it harder to access healthier options in their neighbourhoods.
Researchers will measure how diet and health changes as a result and then use a computer model to predict the broader impacts on health and accessibility to healthy foods if these interventions were rolled out across the country.
It is hoped that by understanding the impact of innovative local interventions like mobile greengrocers and voucher schemes, this research could help shape more effective ways of improving diet and reducing health inequalities across the country.
Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: "No one in this country should be left unable to access the healthy food they need – which is why interventions like the Queen of Greens are so important – and measuring their impact is so vital.
"These projects will draw on the power of research to actively explore the best ways to get healthy food into the mouths of those who need it, potentially having a transformational effect on people’s lives, and fulfilling the missions set in our Plan for Change."
The project is one of six receiving £8.5 million in government funding, through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), aimed at improving the accessibility of nutritious food and potentially tackling food waste, by making good food more available to people who need it.
Two state-subsidised eateries will also be piloted in Dundee and Nottingham, to provide universal access to nutritious and sustainably produced foods in social settings - particularly to meet the needs of deprived households with children.
In Glasgow, the role of community food markets in areas with limited access to grocery stores will be assessed. To understand successful methods to promote food markets, researchers will incorporate art and food literacy activities to one market and compare the intervention against another market without the intervention.
