Healthy takeaway and community cooking

“One of the most impactful things about the cooking club has been seeing how engaged the trained Parent Leaders are with the project. These mums have built up their confidence to share recipes and cook with a whole room of people. They are actively engaged with every element of the Family Food Club; thinking carefully about how to adapt a recipe to be healthier, how to include families in the cooking process and making sure that food hygiene standards are met. They say how proud they are when everyone sits down to eat the meal that they have planned and helped produce. Their involvement in the Family Food Club has resulted in a real shift in the way that they think about and relate to food in their everyday lives, as well as how they feel about themselves.”

The community aspect of the club – families cooking together and eating together – is a huge draw for those who attend. It is clear from speaking to the parents that having other mums and dads to talk to is as important as the access to facilities.

Helen also said: “Personally I have been able to try new dishes that I have never tried before, it has also made me more interested in making food from scratch, searching the web for healthy food recipes that I can make for my family. My kids are more involved in the kitchen now than before. From the conversations I’ve had with the other mums, they are enjoying the process of cooking together and the delicious meals afterwards.”

Better Everyday Takeaway

The continued focus on the ways inequality impacts families was also key to the development of Better Everyday Takeaway. The UK takeaway market has seen sales increase by 34% since 2009 and there are 1200 fast-food outlets in Southwark alone. We know that low-income neighbourhoods have significantly more takeaway outlets than more affluent local areas, and that they often market heavily to school children.

Families in Lambeth and Southwark have been involved in the design and testing of all aspects of Better Everyday Takeaway, from recipes to branding. Shift, the organisation we have partnered with to lead the project, designs products for social change, and key to their approach is extensive research alongside local businesses, as well as with the communities they’re working to support.

“We’ve learnt so much already from designing and launching the takeaway, not least about the culture of working in a food business,” says Patrick Bek, Venture Lead at Shift.

“A busy shift means happy staff, so while the takeaway has been gaining traction we’ve had to be creative with our time. Alongside preparing orders, our chef channels energy and creativity into menu development and experimenting with making food that could work for different access points.”

“We’re also learning just how significant the operational challenges are of running a food business in such a competitive landscape. Costs are high, especially in London and given that we pay our staff fairly. Whilst driving takeaway sales is our primary focus, we’re very quickly putting a lot of effort into developing alternative revenue streams or subsidies – like volume catering, incorporating food waste into our supply chain, and even renting out kitchen space. We’re excited to be unearthing lots of opportunities but there’s still so much to learn about what will work best for this business and the audiences we want to reach.”

The average takeaway meal contains 68% of a person’s recommended daily calorie intake so the challenge is to reduce this significantly while maintaining taste and affordability. Feedback so far from customers has been positive, though there have been significant barriers to maintaining low production costs. One of these has been sourcing affordable commercial kitchen space, an issue it seems for businesses as well as local residents.

“We knew from our Healthy Returns research that kitchen space was an issue, but this project has brought it home to me,” says Matt Towner, our Portfolio Manager leading on the project.

“The lack of affordable and reliable space has been a real challenge for Shift, and points towards something we and other actors in impact investing may look to address.”

As well as measuring potential impact on families and urban health more generally this project sees us move into a commercial sector where disrupting the market is notoriously challenging.

“We’re reimagining what a takeaway should and could do – a midweek meal that’s wholesome and yet still meets the need for convenience and bringing the family together” continues Matt.

“This is a high-risk, but potentially high-reward endeavour. If we are successful we can prove that it is possible to provide a viable commercial alternative to unhealthy takeaway options, which could have huge impact. It may also create an opportunity for a financially successful business. If that happens, our grant will convert into an ownership stake in that business, ensuring we can reinvest that money into our charitable objectives.”

As with our partnership with PACT, working with Shift has helped us reach a range of audiences, and afforded us access to both behavioural and market insights.

“Shift is great at moving quickly and testing things to see what works”, Matt adds.

“They’ve also formed a good partnership with food ordering platform Just Eat which will boost brand recognition locally. They leverage partnerships with commercial organisations interested in the social objectives of what we’re trying to do, bringing in resource that could otherwise be expensive.”

With each new project we add another healthy option to the homes, schools and streets of those most affected by health inequality. Our aim is to stem the flow of unhealthy food options until children on a low income have the opportunities to be healthy, no matter where they live.

Update August 2021: Since we started this work, our healthy takeaway was covered on ITV Tonight and has since expanded. Find out more from our partner, Shift, about how the healthy takeaway developed during and responded to the pandemic.

Childhood obesity is an issue of inequality – and one businesses and policy makers need to take more responsibility for.

Tune in to #ITVTonight from 7.30pm tonight to see our Chief Executive @KieronJBoyle talking about this and more #ChildhoodObesity pic.twitter.com/FgLab8hI3o

— Impact on Urban Health (@ImpUrbanHealth) September 10, 2020