Your Local Pantry is part of a major research trial!

Household food insecurity, that is, insufficient and insecure access to food due to financial constraints, has been steadily rising in the UK. The Food Standards Agency’s Food and You 2 survey (2023-2024) indicated that 23% of the respondents experienced low and very low food security, and further 16% of the respondents experienced marginal food security. These levels of food insecurity are unprecedented, though even before the COVID-19 pandemic, about 20% of households were food insecure according to an earlier Food Standards Agency survey. Experiencing food insecurity can have multiple negative consequences including negative impacts on diet, mental health, and risk of non-communicable diseases.

In response to the rising levels of food insecurity, there has been steady expansion in the number and types of community food projects operating across England. Most prominent of such projects have been food banks, charitable and emergency food aid projects that distribute free bags of groceries (often referred to as “food parcels”) and other wraparound services such as debt advice, mental health support, or benefits guidance to people experiencing food insecurity. However, qualitative studies have revealed that people using food banks often experience feelings of shame about using them and that the foods provided in food parcels can be ill-matched to needs. Research has also questioned the practice of referral requirements practiced by many food banks and the amount of discretion that food banks exercise when deciding who to help and how. Further, though many food banks position themselves as a response to an acute financial crisis, where the acute provision of food aid may be seen an appropriate stopgap measure, evidence of chronic problems of food insecurity among people using food banks and in the wider population suggest that such an emergency food aid model may not be best suited to meet the needs of people experiencing food insecurity.

In response to the negative criticisms of food banks and in recognition of the problem of chronic food insecurity, exploration of alternative forms of community food support for people experiencing food insecurity has become a necessity. This has led to a proliferation of “community food clubs”, which can be variously called as social supermarkets, community food shops, food pantries, or community food stores. These membership-based models, usually set up by not-for-profit or social enterprise organisations, offer food for a low-cost membership fee or enable purchasing food at significantly lower prices compared to the mainstream retailers. Community food clubs are often set up like retail environments, with members able to exercise choice of what they select. Many community food clubs also aim to build social and community relationships through provision of opportunities to volunteer and interact with others in the local community, and offer a range of activities like skills development, training, debt advice, and cooking classes. 

The number of community food clubs is rising in the UK, often with support from local governments. Yet, the impacts of membership on individuals’ diet, food and financial hardships, and mental health remains underexplored. Evaluating the impacts of community food clubs is important for understanding their potential role in reducing food insecurity in the population. With this in mind, this study aims to examine the impacts of membership in one community food model, Your Local Pantry (YLP), on various outcomes including food security, dietary quality and mental wellbeing.

The primary research question that will be addressed in our evaluation is “Does membership in a Your Local Pantry food pantry reduce food insecurity?”

The secondary research questions that will be addressed in the our evaluation are:

 “Does membership in a Your Local Pantry food pantry…

• …increase mental well-being”?
• …increase dietary quality”?
• …reduce financial hardship”?
• …reduce loneliness”?
• …increase self-rated general health”?
• …increase personal sense of dignity”?
• …reduce non-food material hardships”?

The intervention is membership in a YLP food pantry. In exchange for a pay-on-use fee that ranges from £3.50 to £7 depending on the pantry, membership provides access to a weekly “shop” for ten items of a variety of food, including frozen and chilled food, meat, dairy, vegetarian and vegan products, alongside a supply of tins and packets of long shelf-life foods, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables and bakery items from the members’ Your Local Pantry food pantry. The value of items acquired after paying the usage fee has been estimated to be £21. In addition, most YLP pantries offer additional services at their sites and access to these is part of YLP membership.

It is not clear a priori whether pantry membership affects outcomes immediately or gradually. Therefore, in our analysis we will consider membership as a binary variable (access or no access), where the effects are assumed to be immediate for members because of both the felt and real benefit of being granted access to a pantry, and as a continuous variable, where the number of days of membership is measured, and where benefits may increase over time as members become more familiar with the pantry and benefit from its services.

This study will target named individuals who newly apply for membership in a YLP pantry in England during fieldwork period (~ February to July 2025). Participants will include those allocated membership immediately and those who are put on a waiting list at the time of the application.

Only applicants who are older than 18 years of age will be eligible to participate but there will be no upper age limit. Individuals that have household members, including children, will be eligible to participate. Individuals who are not able to provide informed consent will not be eligible to participate in this study. Due to the remote nature of the study, individuals who are unable to complete questionnaires online or over the phone with a researcher will also not be eligible to participate.

The primary outcome measure will be food insecurity. We will use the FAO’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), which is a validated measure of household and individual level experience of food insecurity. 

In addition there are a number of secondary outcomes that are of interest, relating to our theory of change outlining the potential impacts of YLP membership. These include:

• Mental health and well-being;
• Diet quality;
• Proportion reporting ability to keep up with bills, debts, and credit commitments;
• Proportion reporting loneliness;
• Proportion reporting good or very good health;
• Self-report of being treated with dignity;
• Proportion reporting going without one or more other non-food essential items.

Read more at www.salientfoodtrials.uk/trials/communitypantries