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Food banks remain the dominant response to food insecurity in the UK but are widely recognised as inadequate and undignified. Social supermarkets (SSMs) have emerged as a potential alternative, offering discounted food in a retail setting that restores choice and reduces stigma. This study provides the first quantitative evidence in the UK on low-income users’ preferences for SSMs.
This study examines low-income households’ experiences of food support and their views on the Cash-First approach, a key Scottish Government strategy to reduce reliance on food banks. All respondents are from low-income households (≤£20,000), making them the group most likely to use food aid and cash-based support. Using survey data from 1,019 participants, the findings show low awareness of Cash-First but strong preferences for flexible, accessible schemes delivered via bank transfers that cover broader living costs. Respondents value combining cash with support services.
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. This definition is rooted in four essential dimensions, availability, access, utilization, and stability, and firmly grounded in the Right to Food enshrined in international law.
The event opened with a packed parliamentary reception at Holyrood, where Emma Harper MSP welcomed delegates before remarks from Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon, SEFARI Gateway Director
Mairi Gougeon, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform, and Islands and SEFARI Gateway are hosting Scotland’s Global Food Security Conference, with the theme ‘Climate Change, Collaboration, and Comparative Advantage’ in Edinburgh, 5th–7th November 2025.
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In Scotland, about 11% of households experienced l
The index measures year-on-year change, building on the UKFSR evidence base but also taking into account wider intelligence and forecasts, and policy developments. In contrast with the common use of the term, the index is not presented as a single number but it comprises 9 separate indicators across a range of areas.
The 9 indicators and their assessment (in parenthesis) are:
Are urban community food growing projects the answer to the problem of food poverty and the seemingly ever-increasing number of food banks?
My research interests include: food insecurity and how it can be tackled; how economic circumstances and food consumption practices are linked; how consumers and producers construct, materially and conceptually, 'alternative' economic networks, both now and in the past. This work is informed by cultural political economy, and I am currently working on how this perspective can be applied to smaller and micro-scales through an engagement with the work of Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu.
The Rowett Institute
Foresterhill
Aberdeen
AB25 2ZD