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Food Strategy - Local Store

How the strategy was developed

The Bradford Good Food Strategy has been co-produced with individuals and representatives from a range of local organisations, businesses, researchers and academics, the public sector, voluntary sector and various teams across the council. We have created a shared vision for putting healthy and sustainable food at the heart of the Bradford district.

Over a period of 18 months, more than 100 stakeholders, organisations and senior leaders shared their knowledge and skills to collectively develop a vision for what our local food system should look like.

Click here to download the Consultation Findings

Video: Local children’s perspectives of the Bradford food system

 

A systematic public consultation

Between June and September 2022 we also conducted a substantial public consultation and engagement exercise which incorporated an online questionnaire, public workshops, interactive forums, Q&A, and substantial face-to-face engagement.

This report collates consultation and feedback on the strategy and action plan from the following documents:

  • Online consultation survey feedback (290 responses)
  • In-person feedback from families at Holiday Activities and Food (HAF)programme sessions (From 18 parks and green spaces across the district) – (737 responses)
  • Online consultation ‘map’ feedback (31 responses)

A total of 1,058 responses have been analysed as part of this report.

It should be noted that the majority of the face to face consultations (737) were done with families and children attending the HAF programme and not just a single adult. However, for the purposes of this report, and due to the limited demographic data collected at those consultations, the data will present as if they were single consultations.

Food Strategy - Locally Sourced Products

Top 5 priorities in relation to the food system in the district (In ascending order)

  • Access to healthy food options – Universal but weighted towards middle & higher incomes
  • Access to low cost food – Universal but weighted towards lower incomes
  • Sustainable food packaging – Representative of all incomes
  • Where food is sourced – Weighted towards middle & higher incomes
  • Climate change – Weighted towards middle & higher incomes

Key highlights from the survey

On Healthy Eating (Creating an Eating Well Culture)

  • 22% of respondents can’t access fresh food in their local area (within 20min walk or cycle) – This jumps to 62% of people for households with incomes less than £20k.*
  • What would make it easier to make a healthy choice? The top 3 responses were:
  • Approximately 80% responded to say “For healthy options to cost less”
  • Followed closely (~50% responses) by 2) “clear info on product/menu” and 3) “More options available with reduced sugar, salt or fat”

On Food Insecurity (Tackling Food Insecurities)

  • 65% of people responded to say that they are not aware of where their nearest food bank is (Closer to 20% of respondents from lower income households)*
  • 10% of respondents skipped a meal in last 12months due to lack of income and 7% ran out of food. – These figures go up to 25% for households with household incomes less than £20k*

On Markets and Local Growing (Community Led Food Growing)

  • 21% of respondents reported never using their local market*
  • Of those that don’t use a local market – 28% because it’s too expensive, 22% not open at convenient times, with numerous comments on lack of variety and quality of fresh food not available*
  • 48% are involved in growing their own food (at home, allotment, school or work)*
  • 37% would like more knowledge/skills on growing locally*
  • 35% wish for easier access to allotments *

On Climate Change (A Sustainable Food System for all)

  • 86% of respondents stated they are ‘slightly concerned’ or ‘very concerned’ by the climate emergency (There were no demographic themes i.e. it was representative across all postcodes, ages, genders, ethnicities and incomes)
  • 63% make a meal with non-animal based protein weekly or daily*
  • What would make it easier to prepare a non-animal based protein meal?* 100+ comments with themes around more/better recipe ideas, cooking skills, cost and access to different options.

(*Questions only asked on online survey)