A baseline of 22% of people live in food poverty in the UK, often reliant on solutions outside of mainstream food systems, including food banks. This doesn't enable people to plan or choose their diet, or to improve their food security on a long-term basis.
Our vision is to provide citizens of culturally-diverse disadvantaged communities with choice and agency over the food they consume, by co-developing new products, new supply chains and new policy frameworks that deliver an affordable, attractive, healthy and sustainable diet.
Previous attempts at transforming the food-health system to become more equitable, sustainable and integrated have had limited impact as they fail to engage disadvantaged communities in the research process and the policy design, leading to a failure to impart knowledge sharing or social innovation. The disconnect between households, communities and national supply and production networks presents one of the greatest challenges to developing a socially just, healthier, and sustainable food system for everyone.
The project brings together academic researchers, food industry representatives, civil organisations and policy makers to reimagine how food policy, food products and food supply chains can be developed. The project will focus on working together with disadvantaged communities to jointly imagine new solutions to address a lack of access to healthy, sustainable food.
The Food Systems Equality project (FoodSEqual) is part of the 'Transforming the UK Food System for Health People and a Healthy Environment SPF Programme' which aims to fundamentally transform the UK food system by placing healthy people and a healthy natural environment at its centre.
