Food Insecurity in York and North Yorkshire

York and North Yorkshire COVID Recovery Insight Project: Food Insecurity is a multi-partnership project about food insecurity supported by SKYBLUE Research and Evaluation, North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council. Our part was to understand the direct experiences of people accessing community food services in York. We recruited community researchers, talked to over 55 people across 9 food provisions, exploring themes of choice, dignity, reliance, and the path toward self-sufficiency. Through our initial piece of work, we discovered that the direct experience, local knowledge and established connections of our community researchers are essential for gathering meaningful insights.

We are continuing to work with core partners across North Yorkshire, focusing on rural communities and their reality of food insecurity. Together, we’ve started bringing their communities into shared conversations about food, inspired by the strengths and approaches of each organisation. This work continues to highlight how vital it is to root local projects and policies in the direct experiences of the people they’re meant to serve. We’re excited to keep building on this and we’re hopeful that over the coming months, we can gather even more experiences and insights from across North Yorkshire to drive meaningful change.

“Look at the pockets of insufficiency and see what could work for that area, you need those individual community people to drive that community, maybe they’re out there, waiting to be asked, who knows” Food provision facilitator