We are currently mapping published evidence from international and UK-based studies, alongside local reports and other grey literature. Our aim is to better understand how a diverse range of community food activities contribute to a variety of outcomes, including health and wellbeing, social connectedness, and individual food security.

Why this is important now
The community food sector across Scotland supports people in so many ways, from food growing and cooking groups to community cafés, lunch clubs and income maximisation advice within pantries. This might be done as a stand-alone community food organisation, or as part of a community organisation that delivers a range of activities. While we believe community food activities can make a positive difference to communities and we’re aware the sector has produced or taken part in evaluation or research for many years, it can still be difficult to clearly explain the sector’s contribution and bring together the evidence that supports it. 

Our evidence mapping project is being developed at a time when prevention, community wellbeing and whole-system approaches are shaping public policy. For example, the Scottish Government’s Population Health Framework (including the Supporting Sector Summary of the Community and Voluntary sector) highlights the important role that community and voluntary organisations play in reaching marginalised communities, preventing poor health and reducing inequalities. Likewise, the National Good Food Nation Plan recognises that food is connected to health, sustainability, economic wellbeing and empowered communities.

The community food sector is already contributing to many of these policy ambitions. It often uses a holistic, community-led approach that addresses the wider “building blocks of health” such as social connection, confidence, skills, participation and access to support. However, we have found so far that much of the available community food research focuses on individual activities, such as cooking programmes, food growing or food aid, rather than the wider contribution of community food sector and how it works with or intersects with the wider community and voluntary and other sectors. This mapping aims to bring that evidence together.

What will we do with the findings?
The findings will be used to develop clear, evidence-informed messages about the value of community food activities. We hope these will support policymakers, funders, commissioners and practitioners, inform local and national decision-making, and identify areas where further evidence is needed.

How we are doing this
We are bringing existing evidence reviews, UK reports and grey literature together. The mapping is guided by several research questions, including how community food activities contribute to health and wellbeing, food security, social outcomes, employment, volunteering and engagement with marginalised communities.

Our (very draft) current theory of change is trying to assess and understand how community food activities may contribute to positive outcomes through several pathways, e.g.:

Community food activities → contributes to development of people’s skills, confidence, connections, participation, interest in food and better food access, contributing to→ Better health and wellbeing outcomes, better economic and work outcomes

A challenge (and opportunity) is ensuring our work learns from wider research already underway or completed on the wider contribution of the community and voluntary sector to health and wellbeing, including the work by the Common Health Assets team, and the information about the sector that informed the Population Health Framework.  Rather than viewing community food in isolation, this mapping seeks to understand its place within a wider ecosystem of community-led action.