Project leads: Simon Welham, Sally Hibbert

Food brings people together, connecting family, friends and communities. It can play a central role in helping people to live well in communities, contributing to people’s health and happiness and as a thriving part of local economies. Yet around 10% of people in the UK are experiencing food insecurity and our research has shown that, locally, an even greater number find it difficult to access sufficient, nutritious food to live active and healthy lives. Action is urgently needed and stakeholders across Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County are committed to creating inclusive, food secure communities. Our projects are helping to develop local insight and identify effective and affordable actions. Through local consultations and a City as Lab event we engaged with diverse stakeholders to explore how to build local insight through mapping, considering the users of local mapping, priority questions to address, alternative approaches, and the availability of local data and capabilities. More focused discussions centred on our survey examining levels and critical drivers of local food insecurity. One key barrier to accessing affordable, healthy food is travel to food outlets. Using the projection augmented relief model (PARM) based at City as Lab we mapped locations of grocery stores, fast food outlets, food banks, walking times to food outlets and transport routes. This data visualisation stimulated detailed evaluations of key challenges and has initiated further discussion with multiple stakeholders, including city and county public health and elected councilors, to find sustainable interventions to improve food access and envision pathways towards food secure communities.