Community-Led Workshops to Engage Action for Food System Change (FoodSEqual)

Background: The UK food system is distorted by inequalities of access for socially and economically disadvantaged communities. There is a need for novel approaches whereby communities can lead food system change. Research Objective: This study aimed to explore creative methods (delivered by community members) to support dietary benchmarking activities as part of a UK consortium food system transformation research project (FoodSEqual, 2021). Methods: Several ‘shopping basket’ workshops were run to ‘sense check’ national dietary datasets against local community lived experience, seeking aspirational views on dietary change. Informed by UK data synthesis (Methven et al 2022), workshops were co-designed by community members, involving: i) individual food recall; ii) food frequency groupwork iii) comparison with national data-sets; Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research – Vol. 85, 2024 221 iv) aspirations to dietary change. Participatory analysis (Nind 2011) permitted key themes to be identified Results: Five exploratory workshops involved n=31 participants, mean age 61y. Themes were: i) food access (transport to shops; poor quality local food retail and stigma of food bank) and ii) affordability (inability to choose fresh meat/fruit/veg or useable quantities/portion sizes). Participants aspired towards better quality/useable quantities of fruit/veg; less packaging; better varied supply of locally caught fish and fresh vegetables. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research Downloaded from dcjournal.ca by 62.7.180.132 on 02/17/25 Discussion: These workshops provided community data that permitted ‘validation’ of national datasets (underrepresentative of poorer communities) and food system innovation ideas to progress the FoodSEqual project. Exploratory creative methods may be limited in generalisability but robust in their utility to engage communities. Such approaches can foster progressive and inclusive ways to support equitable and lasting solutions for food system change. References: Methven L, Smith R, Zischka L, Pettinger C, et al (2022) 'Co-creation with Disadvantaged Communities: A participatory “shopping basket” method exploring what people eat and potential for change' Eurosense 2022 Open access Nind M (2011) Participatory data analysis: a step too far? Qualitative Research, 11, 4 https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794111404310