{
  "abstract": "Background There has been a substantial expansion of community food organisations (CFO, e.g. food banks, pantries, community kitchens), since COVID-19 and the cost of living crisis. This paper presents findings from Fair Food Futures UK, a NIHR-funded study exploring the mechanisms and extent to which CFOs may help to reduce the need for emergency food assistance by families.Methods We explored the models/components of CFOs via systems mapping research via workshops (n=89), stakeholder interviews (n=36) and surveying 93 organisations. Findings were used to sample CFOs for a participatory ethnography, in which 3 researchers were embedded as volunteers in 9 food organisations for 12 months. We recruited 30 families who used a CFO and a further 10 food insecure families who did not, to take part in three go-along interviews and to share their experiences and meanings behind food via a participant-led photo-elicitation study.Results The community food aid system was complex and fragile, with organisations competing for funding, unreliable food supply system, on-going uncertainty about sustainability and a reliance on volunteers. This precarity affected food quantity and quality and reduced the capacity to deliver broader support. CFOs were highly valued by families, but were a strategy adopted by many to stretch consistently insufficient budgets; alleviating food insecurity, but not as a short-term ‘emergency’ function.Conclusion It is argued that CFOs do not tackle the structural and economic drivers of food insecurity, thus potentially perpetuating a reliance on them. Our research was unable to identify any models that reduce food insecurity; rather, that food aid has become increasingly institutionalised. The root causes of food insecurity can only be alleviated through poverty proofing the system, but additional support from central government could help CFOs, many of which are tirelessly working to provide much needed on-going support.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The Hull York Medical School, University of York, York, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Maria Bryant"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Giorgia Previdoli"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Wendy Burton"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Social Research Institute, University College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Rachel Benchekroun"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Business and Society, University of York, York, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Ariadne Kapetanaki"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Business and Society, University of York, York, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Bob Doherty"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Social Research Institute, University College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Claire Cameron"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Public Health, Environments & Society, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Maddy Power"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Business and Society, University of York, York, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Philip Hadley"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Kate Pickett"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Laura Sheard"
    }
  ],
  "title": "P03-3 A mixed qualitative methods study exploring the role that community food organisations play to reduce food insecurity in families",
  "uid": "4c888297-fb6f-5757-9967-a1d3b1d0eee5"
}