Trading Standards, the Healthy Living Partnership, Oxford City Council, Cherwell District Council and the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust are working together to map food poverty around the county and to look into ways to find solutions to issues raised. Food poverty can be due to many reasons such as lack of access to healthy affordable food, lack of transport, lack of knowledge about healthy eating, lack of cooking skills and lack of food provision in an area. The project has involved members of the food poverty mapping group visiting community groups to find out about things such as the types of foods they can buy, how much it costs, what kind of transport they use and what kinds of meals they can cook. We also asked some members of the group to complete a three day food diary for us so we could look at the types of foods they were eating. Trading Standards compiled all the data collected and a leaflet was produced, which was given to participants when we visited to give feedback. Where a particular need is identified we try to work with the communities involved to help to identify a solution.
Our purpose is to help improve the health and well being of people in Oxford