Community Food Initiatives

• Project start date: 18 September 2010
• Project status: Completed
• Discipline: Nutrition
• Principal researcher/s: SECAD Partnership CLG

Research objective

The aim of the Community Food Initiative (CFI) programme is to positively influence the eating habits of families with children in low-income communities.

Outputs

Research report

• Title: Evaluation of the Community Food Initiative Programme, 2019-2021
• Publication date: 18 May 2022
• Summary: The Community Food Initiative programme uses a community development approach to mainstream healthy food in the local setting and promote greater access and availability of healthy and safe food in low-income areas.
• Findings:

  Safefood funded 14 organisations to deliver projects from 2019-2021. Almost 5,250 families took part in a CFI activity including small projects and community events.

  The programme increased awareness and knowledge around healthy eating and enhanced skills related to cooking, shopping, planning and budgeting. All these are transferable skills that can benefit an entire community. Participants also reported mental health, social and emotional benefits.

  Evaluation of the programme highlighted several learnings that will inform future programmes.

  • Online delivery was an integral part of the programme due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This approach was very successful and relevant at the time; however, it came with its own challenges and is not suitable for every organisation.
  • Two main barriers to delivering the programme were identified, these were the inability to use funding to purchase cooking equipment and the unavailability of nutrition professionals to deliver sessions.
  • Some CFIs felt the community events had little impact and found it challenging to reach a wider audience at community events. These events were impacted greatly by public health restrictions during the programme, and this must be considered.
• Recommendations:
  1. Use a hybrid approach to deliver small projects, combining in-person, live video and recorded video. The approach should be individualised to each organisation.
  2. Include the CFI at Home programme as part of the 2022-2024 CFI programme. Programme manager to support CFI leaders to identify alternative sources of funding for equipment.
  3. Explore opportunities for collaboration with nutrition and dietetic stakeholders to support delivery of the programme.
  4. Facilitate shared learning between CFIs on the delivery of successful community events and engaging a wider audience through CFI leader meetings.

Other outputs

Previous evaluation reports

• Community Food Initiatives 2010-2012 - Evaluation summary
• Community Food Initiatives 2010-2012 - Evaluation report
• Community Food Initiatives 2013-2015 - Evaluation summary
• Community Food Initiatives 2013-2015 - Evaluation report
• Community Food Initatives 2016-2018 - Evaluation summary
• Community Food Initiatives 2016-2018 - Evaluation report

Similar research

• The cost of a healthy food basket in Northern Ireland 2014-2022 (2022)
• The cost of a healthy food basket in Ireland 2014-2022 (2022)
• Food on a low income (2011)