Nourish the Nation: evaluating food clubs across the UK

About the project

Food insecurity remains a significant issue in the UK, currently affecting more than one in nine UK households. In response, new approaches are urgently needed. Food clubs offer an alternative to food banks, regular affordable access to healthy food and community connection rather than emergency food provision. 

The Tavistock Institute has evaluated Sainsbury’s and Comic Relief’s Nourish the Nation programme, which supported the following three charitable food providers to scale up their work and create more food secure communities: 

• Feeding Britain;

• The Bread and Butter Thing;

• FoodSavers Network.

What we did

We visited 7 food clubs across the UK to understand: 

• How members experience food clubs; 

• What difference they make to people’s lives; 

• How sustainable the food clubs are; 

• What lessons can inform future policy and practice. 

Our approach was participatory: we involved food club members, staff and volunteers to ensure their voices shaped our findings. 

During our visits, we spoke with more than 70 people. 

In addition, we interviewed experts in food insecurity, reviewed existing evidence on food clubs, and analysed data collected by the three charitable food providers. 

What we found 

Food clubs provide preventative and reparative support for households experiencing ongoing food insecurity as a result of financial precarity.

We found that food clubs make a real difference to people experiencing food insecurity. They help households afford good-quality food, reduce pressure on finances and provide a welcoming, stigma-free space where people feel respected and connected to others. 

Many food clubs also help members access wider support, such as advice on money, housing and health. 

As a result, members reported improvements in budgeting, diet, wellbeing and social connection, with benefits often extending to families, neighbours and volunteers as well.

The evaluation highlights how members experience the food clubs and provides food for thought for commissioners and delivery partners.

Celebration of the food club model

Food clubs are designed not just to respond to crisis, but to prevent it. 

Unlike food banks, they offer ongoing, reliable access to affordable food, helping people stay afloat rather than step in only at a breaking point.

Download this one page summary as a pdf

Why it matters

This evaluation provided vital evidence of how food clubs offer a dignified, effective alternative to traditional food banks and have informed future investment and policy decisions about tackling food insecurity.

How it fits in

This research aligns with TIHR’s commitment to understanding and addressing poverty, inequality and social exclusion. 

It also advanced our expertise in participatory methods - working alongside people with lived experience to ensure their voices shape both the research process and outcomes.