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Research and evaluation

CFHS has commissioned research and evaluation in order to:

  • build the evidence base on the nature and extent of community food activity in Scotland
  • identify the contribution of this work in reducing health inequalities and barriers to healthy and affordable food
  • explore new ideas for improving food and health work.

Findings are shared with community food initiatives (CFIs), policymakers and key stakeholders to promote learning and improve practice.

Our plan for 2024/2025

CFHS is currently working with the Scottish Government, community food networks and our colleagues in Public Health Scotland to plan how the community food sector can be supported in the future.

News and updates

Food security, diet and obesity – community-led research

Posted: May 11, 2019
Central and West Integration Network were supported by CFHS/NHS Health Scotland last year to lead a community-led research project. The research explored the experiences of ethnic minority communities around food security, ...

Cafes in communities

Posted: January 17, 2019
Are you involved in running a café in a local community (geographical or shared interest) run for local people and/or by local people on a ...

Reasons to be cheerful part 2 – CFHS cooking skills research. What did we learn about the best ways to run a cooking skills course?

Posted: January 17, 2019
Our cooking skills study group realist evaluation (2016-2018), gathered information from 29 community cooking skills courses (attended by 75 adults -all of whom were managing ...

Cooking skills blog: Cooking skills research – Reasons to be cheerful, part one

Posted: June 28, 2018
Earlier this year, around 50 people, many who run or manage cooking skills activities came together to hear evidence about the impact of community cooking ...

Self-evaluation programme for community cafes

Posted: April 24, 2018
Between August 2017 and March 2018 we worked with a small group of community cafes to look at self-evaluation.  Together they developed a list of community cafe ...

Guest blog – community-led research generates more than research knowledge

Posted: January 16, 2018
Our guest blog is from Lesley Greenaway, a free-lance evaluator and consultant. She has a PhD in Participative Evaluation, and is committed to building capacity for research ...

Community café self evaluation group – outcomes to evaluate impact

Posted: January 11, 2018
We have been working with a group of community cafes to look at self-evaluation. Together they have developed a list of community cafe outcomes to reflect the range of ...

Cooking skills blog 29: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: Guest blog: what’s the difference between ‘observation’ and ‘third party’?

Posted: April 6, 2017
All members of our cooking skills study group are aiming to use a combination of three different evaluation sources to find out if their courses ...

Cooking skills blog 27: Cooking skills research: Are you more likely to cook if you have cooking skills?

Posted: March 9, 2017
This blog post looks at a research article which suggests that possessing cooking ‘skills’ is only one of a range of factors associated with whether ...

Cooking skills Blog 26: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: Using both questionnaires and observation as methods

Posted: February 17, 2017
This week, my colleague Jacqui and I have been visiting members of our cooking skills study group and discussing what we have been finding out ...