Community Food Research
BRITE Box London Met
The recent ONS survey reported that 92% of students had been affected by the cost-of-living crisis with 46% of revealing their overall mental health and well-being had worsened. London Metropolitan University has a unique diverse student population: in 20-21, 82% of students were mature, 64% of students identified as female, 55% of students were from a minoritized background and 13% had a known disability. Furthermore, at least 50% of our students reside in Islington or in the other deprived boroughs of London, many of whom have caring responsibilities. It has been documented those students with families, who come from a low income and a minority background are more vulnerable and are more likely to be disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis and at risk of food insecurity.
We sought to ease the cost-of-living crisis burden with the implementation of an innovative scheme BRITE Box, which provides a complete set of pre-weighed ingredients for a healthy nutritious meal with an easy-to-follow recipe guide. Each box typically contains two servings of fresh vegetables, meat, bread and dairy, as well as spices, dried and tinned goods to feed five people. We planned to provide one box a month for six months to students with families.
So far, the scheme has proved to be popular among the students “a really cool concept”, “it helped me cook”, “the box provided food for 3 days”, creating a buzz around campus on distribution days. Hopefully, it has enhanced the feeling of community and belonging within the university, whilst also alleviating food insecurity and tackling the cost-of-living crisis.
To date we have distributed 170 boxes in a period of five months. Our preliminary data shows that 55% of the recipients identified as female, 79% were from a minority background, 38% were aged over 30 years, 45% lived at home and 30% had children. Interestingly, only 21% of the recipients reported of hearing about the scheme from Student Services; the majority came through “word of mouth”.
