1. Serenity Café, Edinburgh 13th December, 2016
Household food insecurity measurement in Scotland: Dec update and workshop
Serenity Café, Edinburgh 13th December, 2016
Workshop Programme

2. Workshop aims
Sharing, learning about and reflecting on work that is currently taking place in Scotland, and in the rest of the UK on the issue of household food insecurity measurement

3. Acknowledgements
This workshop has been funded and supported in kind by NHS Scotland, the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS): Scottish Government, and the Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen.

4. SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT RURAL AFFAIRS, FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT PORTFOLIO Strategic Research Programme Theme 3 Food, Health and Wellbeing Research Deliverable Ensuring Food Security Flora Douglas Liz Dinnie David Watts

5. Key Drivers
Government, policy and civic concern associated with trends in emergency food aid (bank) use and food poverty
- Scottish Food Commission
- Short Life Working Group on Food Poverty
Scottish Government Food and Drink Policy
The Nature and Extent of Food Poverty/Household Insecurity in Scotland’ (Douglas et al) for NHS Health Scotland (May 2015)

6. Questions arising I
The UK is considered food secure at the macro level, but it is not known or is poorly understood:
how many people are food insecure at the household level in the UK or Scotland?
which subgroups or communities may be more vulnerable to household food insecurity (HFI) than others?
to what degree HFI is being experienced by such groups and communities, and how long they are exposed to it?
what the direct health or social consequences of HFI are?
International evidence indicates that food bank use statistics (used by some policy makers as an indirect measure of Household Food Insecurity (HFI)) is a very poor indicator of the nature and extent of HFI in the wider community.

7. Questions arising II
Different (contested) ideas and responses have emerged in recent times with the aim of and aspiration to address HFI.
These include food banks, food rescue/food waste reduction schemes, low cost community retailing, community gardening and Grow-your-own
Little is known about the effectiveness or impact (positive or negative) those responses have in alleviating HFI, or, their impact on health and well-being, in the UK.
NB. Aside from mental health benefits associated with gardening, and participating as a volunteer in some of these responses/programmes.

8. RD 3.3.2 Research Objectives
Our research is setting out to determine:
who is affected by household food insecurity (HFI) in Scotland and the degree to which particular population sub-groups are affected by it; (O1 and O2)
the ways in which HFI is experienced and managed by individual households and communities identified as most badly affected; (O3)
existing and potential community level responses and resources aimed at making individuals, and households within their midst food secure; (O3)
the role that locally and self-produced food plays, or might play, in mitigating HFI amongst communities where it is found to exist (i.e. is concerned with questions of their effectiveness) (O4)
maps of the range and availability of culturally acceptable foods (O5).
The entire programme runs for five years.
However at this stage we have been advised and have worked up research plans on the basis of a two year time frame, with the final three years to be decided during year two in the context of knowing what and who the anticipated further UK Govt spending cuts will have in the subsequent years

9. Research guiding principles
This research is underpinned by a requirement/commitment to:
co-production with policy, practitioner, civil society and academic stakeholders.
develop scale-appropriate policy principles, tools and advice aimed at achieving food security for all, at the community and household level in Scotland.
provide Scottish Govt, policy makers, the public health community and the public with the means to generate a better picture of extent and experience of household food insecurity in Scotland, and, to ask and answer questions about the impact that experience has on health and well-being.
generate data that can inform the development and evaluation of public policy and community-led interventions and programmes aimed at addressing household food security in Scotland.

10. Food (In)security: Working definitions
Food security
“when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active life” UN Food and Agricultural Organisation
Food insecurity
‘The inability to acquire or consume an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so.’ Dowler (2003)

11. Objective 1 Identifying household food insecurity measure (Year 1)
O1.1 Formation of the Experience of Household Food Insecurity (EHFI) steering group, with ongoing engagement
O1.2 Scoping study to define literature review that will investigate existing household food insecurity measures currently or previously used in high income countries (End of Aug 2016)
O1.3 Literature review (Paper presenting the results due End of Jan 2017).
O1.4 Policy briefing paper outlining the components of the EHFI index for field testing and validation arising from the literature review and discussion of the findings for the EHFI steering group. (End March 2017)

12. Household food insecurity: A conceptual framework of its causes and consequences
Considering this conceptual model of HFI ….our research has established that much public health research in Scotland to date has focused on dietary quality and quantity consumptions trends (affordability to a limited extent) …and has largely ignored these other important dimensions and determinants
and with it ..the possibility of identifying the most effective means to address the issue and its impacts.
Fram et al 2015

13. Household food insecurity: A conceptual framework of its causes and consequences? ? ?
Considering this conceptual model of HFI ….our research has established that much public health research in Scotland to date has focused on dietary quality and quantity consumptions trends (affordability to a limited extent) …and has largely ignored these other important dimensions and determinants
and with it ..the possibility of identifying the most effective means to address the issue and its impacts. ? ?
Fram et al 2015

14. Household food insecurity: A conceptual framework of its causes and consequences How and where do children’s experiences figure?
Non-nutritional consequences
of food insecurity may be
particularly keenly felt by children at
key developmental stages
Fram et al 2015

15. Adult / Child FI experience differences: Fram et al 2015
Adult FI experiences are conditioned on food inadequate resources.
Children’s, on the other hand, are grounded in the household social and food environment – i.e. quality of interactions, parental affect and behaviour and food available.
Adults generally report worry about food running out to be the least severe experience of food insecurity – with compromises in food quantity and quality being the most severe.
Children being concerned about their parents being able to feed them may be the more severe experience for their perspective.
Child have less control over their food environment - and there sense of safety made depends on the reliability of the parents to meet the child's needs.
Children may feel unhappy about reduced food quantity and quality, but may feel most distressed when the lose confidence that their parents will be able to find a way to feed them.