Research and Publications

For many households in deprived areas healthy foods, especially fruit and vegetables, are unavailable, unaffordable, or inaccessible. Feasibility tests of the Fresh Street fruit and vegetable voucher scheme have been completed in five areas of high deprivation (Barnsley, Sheffield, Tower Hamlets, Bradford and Doncaster). The scheme was found to be acceptable by householders, local fruit and vegetable suppliers, and local public health teams in all five areas.

A new study – Fresh Street Community – is testing the feasibility of supplying fresh fruit and vegetables at community centres with fruit and vegetables provided by local (non-supermarket) suppliers supported by regular vouchers for nearby households.  Fresh Street Community is a FoodSEqual study funded by the UKRI Transforming UK Food System (TUKFS) programme which is seeking to transform the UK food system by placing healthy people and a healthy natural environment at their centre.

This scheme offers Fresh Street vouchers to each household on streets nearest the community centre. All households in each street are included whatever the household size, type or income. The vouchers can only be used for locally supplied fruit and vegetables. This enables households to choose their fruit and vegetables, supports local suppliers and makes fruit and vegetables more affordable and available for everyone in the community.

Publications and reports

Reading and Plymouth 

DEFRA UK Food Security Report 2024: Theme 4 Food security at the household level – 4.3.2. Healthy Diet – Project 2 Published 11th December 2024

Exploring Enablers of and Barriers to a Fruit and Vegetable Voucher Scheme in England: Insights from the Fresh Street Community Feasibility Study. Jiang Pan, Clare Relton, Lisa Howard et al. Nutrients 2025, 17(3), 483; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17030483

Barnsley, Doncaster and Tower Hamlets

Place-based household vouchers for locally supplied fruit and vegetables: the Fresh Street pilot cluster randomised controlled trial. BMC Public Health 25, 29 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-21062-y

Sheffield

Fresh Street: Testing the feasibility of a place based, household level, approach to increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in a food desert. Clare Relton, Gemma Bridge, Mary Crowder et al. Report. Available from: https://osf.io/vaqbk

Barnsley

Fresh street: the development and feasibility of a place-based, subsidy for fresh fruit and vegetables. Clare Relton, Mary Crowder, Megan Blake & Mark Strong.  Journal of Public Health (Oxford, England), 44(1), 184–191 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaa190

Conference presentations & posters

World Public Health Nutrition Conference – University of Westminster 10-13th June 2024

Food Futures Symposium – University  of Nottingham 20-21st May 2024

Menus of Change Research Collaborative Insights Exchange  June 2024