Benchmarking Food Insecurity Knowledge and attitudes amongst the Australian and UK Public

Benchmarking Food Insecurity Knowledge

PROJECT BRIEF Project Title: Benchmarking Food Insecurity Knowledge and attitudes amongst the Australian and UK Public

1.0 PROJECT ORGANISATION Research team: Professor Rebekah Russell- Bennett (Queensland University of Technology) Dr Geoff Smith (SecondBite) Dr Keith Perks (University of Brighton) Dr Matthew Wood.( University of Brighton) Professor Danielle Gallegos (Queensland University of Technology) Partner Organisations: Queensland University of Technology School of Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations; University of Brighton Business School.

1.1 Project Alignment with SecondBite Strategic Research Priorities Alignment with SecondBite R&D Strategic Research Priorities:

4. Evidence-base to support advocacy

Research Stream: Prevention Research Program Benchmarking


2.0 PROJECT DETAILS 2.1 Project Team Project Leader: Professor Rebekah Russell-Bennett (Queensland University of Technology)

Rebekah has extensive experience in social marketing both as a research project leader and intervention strategist. She has worked with organisations in the social marketing areas of preventative health (cancer screening and breastfeeding), blood donation, public transport, energy use, alcohol use. She has over 150 peer-reviewed articles, 3 textbooks and is an editor of a leading Services Marketing journal. She is the immediate Past President of the Australian Association of Social Marketing. Rebekah contributes to the team by providing:

Social marketing knowledge

Quantitative research design skills

Track record of working with government and NGOs

Project Management Dr Geoff Smith (SecondBite) Geoff is the Research Manager at SecondBite and has extensive experience in formulating and carrying out applied research between the not for profit and academic sectors. He is adept at managing partnerships between research teams and operational teams to ensure research has both applied and theoretical outcomes. He has successfully deployed this partnership model with practitioners from areas such as blood donation, organ and tissue donation and drug and alcohol services in partnership with academics from disciplines such as marketing, psychology, economics and public health. Geoff contributes to the project by providing

Track record of managing NFP/Academic partnerships

Understanding of the food relief sector

Connections to food relief and community food program personnel

Track record of working with the project leader Dr Keith Perks (University of Brighton)


Keith is a Reader in Marketing at the University of Brighton Business School and coordinator for the Marketing Research Group. He has extensive experience at senior levels in management and marketing and his research is in the areas of Corporate Responsibility Communication, Sustainable Marketing, Marketing Systems, and Marketing and Public Policy. He has published on these topics in the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Public Policy and Corporate Communications: An International Journal and presented his work at over 50 international conferences. Keith contributes to the team by providing:

Qualitative research skills

Marketing systems and marketing public policy knowledge

Track record of working with top managers and businesses

Extensive practice based experience business strategy and planning

Track record of working with partners in Australia Dr Matthew Wood.( University of Brighton) Matthew is Principal Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Brighton where he is Head of the Marketing Subject Group and Social Marketing Unit leader. He is an associate of leading social marketing agencies The Campaign Company and Brilliant Futures. Matthew was a founder member of the National Social Marketing Centre’s Academic Advisory Group and established Brighton University as the UK academic partner for the World Social Marketing Conference. He has presented papers and keynote speeches at leading marketing conferences and published work in Social Marketing Quarterly and the Journal of Social Marketing.

Matthew contributes to the team by providing:

Social marketing expertise

Commercial quantitative and qualitative research experience

Australia and UK food and drink consumer panel data experience

Track record of working with partners

Professor Danielle Gallegos (Queensland University of Technology) Danielle is the Associate Professor and Discipline Lead for Nutrition and Dietetics at Queensland University of Technology. She is a member of the Australian Food Security Research Collaboration and a leading social nutritionist in areas of public health including; food security, food literacy and early childhood feeding. She has published widely in areas related to public health


nutrition and in particular in the area of social marketing and infant feeding.

Danielle contributes to the team by providing:

Expertise in food insecurity at the household level

Qualitative methodology research experience

Expertise on the nexus between social marketing and health promotion

Project management experience

Track record in working with the Australian members of the team

2.2 Background: What and how we eat is important to our health and wellbeing and how the food is grown and processed impacts the environment and the economy. Food security is defined as ‘the ability of individuals, households and communities to acquire food that is healthy, sustainable, affordable, appropriate and accessible’. This means the aim of food security is for people to be able to afford a nutritious healthy diet that does not cost too much and is what they want and need, and can be accessed affordably and sustainably. For food security to exist there needs to be good food availability and access combined with appropriate utilisation knowledge, and these factors need to be stable. While Australia and the UK are the 9th and 15th most food secure countries in the world (Global Food Security Index, 2015), the UK ranks the lowest in Western Europe and just over 1 million people were given 3 days’ emergency food supplies and support in 2014-15 (The Trussell Trust, 2015). In Australia, more than 1.2 million Australians (5.2% of the population) indicated they had run out of food at least once in the past 12 months and been unable to afford to buy food (ABS,2009). Higher levels of food insecurity has been identified in sub-groups within the Australian population such as asylum seekers, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples (up to one third in remote areas; ABS, 2015), 25% in disadvantaged urban households (Ramsey, 2012) and people who are unemployed and on benefits. Currently, data on the levels of food poverty is lacking among such groups and the scale of the problem may be underestimated (Institute for Research in Superdiversity (2014). This is a collaborative project between researchers in the University of Brighton Business School; Queensland Benchmarking Food Insecurity Knowledge University of Technology and SecondBite (Food Security Charity). Our research aims to explore the impact of food insecurity in Australia and the UK, understand current then build a better public knowledge of the issues of food security to raise the awareness of the problem and broadening the debate. Creating a public debate is a powerful tool to influence those who are in a position to make sustainable changes through policy and legislation.


This project is stage 1 of a two stage project; Stage 1: Baseline study on Australians’ attitudes and behaviours towards food insecurity Stage 2 (to be developed): Service Design project to build on the findings of stage 1 generate creative and innovative solutions to reducing food insecurity at the preventative stage for each of the identified population segments.

2.3 Project Objective Provide baseline/benchmarking data on public awareness and understanding of issues related to food insecurity in Australia and the UK. Data will be collected using a large-scale survey in both countries This data will be used to inform a social marketing approach to generate public will in order to potentially reframe an issue from one that is seen to only affect those living in poverty or who are marginalised. We will use a marketing systems approach as the theoretical underpinning to locate the key impact point of the social marketing strategy. The project proposal contains budget details for the Australian site only. The UK researchers will facilitate local funding to collect data in the UK.

2.4 Approach No one approach can necessarily address food insecurity alone. As a major problem it requires inter-sectoral effort across the

spectrum with buy-in from decision-makers through to citizens. These efforts could include but are not limited to: policy, nutrition, public health, social welfare, crisis relief and social marketing. A collective goal of these approaches is to change the food system to enable people to change their eating behaviour. Different agencies perform different roles to achieve this goal.

This project adopts a Marketing Systems and a social marketing approach because: Social marketing is the science of behaviour of change

Central focus on Australian attitudes and behaviours

Segmentation of a large group of people is a core concept

Creating value for the individual in undertaking a behaviour is central

Social marketing works collaboratively with other approaches

2.4.1 Sample The target sample will be a random sample of 5000 Australians with representations from all age and income brackets and gender balance. In alignment with the R&D strategy which prioritises preventative research amongst stable ( not in crisis) Australians, this research will examine attitudes and behaviours of stable people (not in crisis) across all demographic segments to identify the responses of those at risk and those who have addressed the problem successfully. This research does not assume that all low-income earners are food insecure and that all higher income Australians are food secure. An outcome of this research will be to identify best-practice examples of low income Australians who are food secure.


2.4.2 Research Questions The research questions (and sample survey questions) that achieve the project objectives are:

RQ 1 Attitudes : What are the current attitudes towards food insecurity?

What is the current attitude of Australians towards food relief, food waste, food rescue

What is the current attitude towards eating healthy?

What are the current beliefs of Australians about:

Who are the food insecure in Australia?

Who is responsible for solving the problem – retailers, government, NGOs, public

Why people are food insecure RQ 2 Knowledge: What is the current knowledge level about food insecurity of Australians?

What does food insecurity mean to Australians?

What is the public awareness of current food insecurity levels in Australia?

What is public awareness of food relief efforts to alleviate food insecurity in Australia?

What is the top of mind awareness of SecondBite as a food relief agency?

What do people know about food production and waste in Australia?

Knowledge levels of healthy eating requirements in Australian households

Do different age groups have alternative understandings of food insecurity

Are there differences in knowledge levels based on demographics and food segment RQ 3 Behaviour/Practices: What are the current food insecurity behaviours and practice of Australians?

What is the self-reported level of food insecurity in Australian Households?

Which practices are currently being used by Australian households?

Growing home produce

Planning and budgeting for meals

Food waste management (preventative and post-eating (leftovers)

Food sharing with others

Preparation of healthy meals

Accessed food relief/community food program


Donated food items to relief programs RQ 4 Motivation to eat healthily: What are the current motivations of Australians to eat healthily?

How motivated are Australian households by the following to prepare and eat healthy meals?

Extrinsic motivation:

Savings

Approval from family/friends

Shopping loyalty programs/cards

Convenience o Lifestyle factors

Intrinsic motivation

Doing the right thing for self and others

Nutritional and healthy benefits RQ 5 Opportunity to eat healthily. What are the opportunities for Australians to eat healthily?

Access

Availability

Affordability

Utilisation RQ 6 Ability to eat healthily. What are the abilities of Australians to eat healthily?

Meal planning skills

Knowledge

Food preparation skills

Food waste management skills

Nutrition skills RQ 7. Food segments. How do Australian s’ attitudes, knowledge, behaviours, motivation, opportunity and abilities to eat healthily/be food secure differ by food segment? Market Research has identified 7 food segments


1. House Proud (22% of Australians): Happiest when their pantry is well stocked and their meal is home cooked, House Proud individuals love cooking and grocery shopping.

2. Trendsetters (9%): New foods, new flavours and new experiences excite this segment, whether they’re cooking up a storm or dining out.

3. Entertainers (8%): This segment loves the social side of food. Whether they like cooking or not, they’re fabulous entertainers – at home and eating out.

4. Old-fashioned Cooks (12%): The same shopping list every week, traditional home-cooked meals and strong brand loyalty characterise this segment’s attitude to food.

5. Zappits (17%): For Zappits, cooking is an unnecessarily time-consuming chore. They’d rather save themselves the hassle with easy-to-prepare food or takeaway.

6. Take-it-aways (9%): Why cook when you can order? Takeaway is this segment’s preference, and as long as it tastes good, they’re happy.

7. Just Feed Me (23%): Not remotely interested in cooking, Just Feed Me people will simply eat what they’re given

What are the attitudes, knowledge, behaviours , Motivators-Opportunities-Attitudes of each food segment?

Which low-income earners are best case examples of food security?

Are they willing to be contacted to contribute to future strategies and be exemplars to the community? RQ 8. Who are the specific influencers involved in the Australian food marketing system?

What are the boundaries to the food marketing system

Which actors are actively involved in the system

Who in the system believe that they have a responsibility for alleviating food insecurity and why?

2.4.3 Deliverables and communication strategy

1. Literature Review of key drivers and behaviours of food insecurity/security 2. Report of baseline information on food insecurity attitudes and behaviours in Australia 3. Presentation of key findings of strategic recommendations for SecondBite 4. Population segmentation map and segment profiles of Food Insecurity in Australia 5. Identification of best-case low income food secure Australians for future research and marketing purposes. 6. Media release on key findings by QUT/SecondBite 7. Submission on key findings by QUT to theconversation.com


8. ‘Research Bite’ e-vignette on project and findings 9. Conference submission – identification of opportunities to discuss findings at industry and academic meetings 10. Journal submission - targeted to both marketing and public health journals to increase the exposure of the key messages

with respect to informing public policy recommendations about food poverty from grass root consumer attitudes and perceptions

11. Insights into the public knowledge gaps to allow building of content to promote the message 12. 2. Recommendations to get the debate on food poverty into the public arena more broadly – knowledge of the type of

varied messaging that may achieve maximum impact across different population segments 13. 3. Inform impactful communication strategy – providing material to SecondBite to use, and the potential of testing and

learning from this as a future research project

14. 4. Dissemination through Policy Reports 3.0 PROJECT BUDGET Budget Item External In kind Internal In kind $s Requested Explanatory Notes QUT In-kind staff involvement $25,000 50 hours for 2 x professors@ $250 hr (100 hours) Brighton University in-kind staff involvement $18,000 45 hours for 1 x Reader@ $250 hr and 1 x Senior Lecturer @150

hr

SecondBite in-kind staff involvement $2000 50 hours for SecondBite R&D Manager @ 40 hr

Purchase of panel n = 5000 Australians $8000 Research Assistant $7000 155 Hours for HEWA level 5.1 @$45 per hour (inclusive on-costs) Total $43,000 $2000 $15,000

Total Program value $60,000 4.0 COMMUNICATION PLAN


ITEM KEY MESSAGE ELEMENTS PERSONNEL Academic articles Marketing and Food Poverty - Sustainable

Marketing System solutions to food poverty based on population segmentation

Targeted to both marketing and public health journals to increase the exposure of the key messages with respect to informing public policy recommendations

Project Team

Project report Practical recommendations for advocacy Further research opportunities

SecondBite Managerial Report Project Team/SecondBite Research Manager

Literature review/white paper

Summary of what is known, literature and knowledge gaps, practical recommendations for advocacy

Summarised versions of findings aimed at various stakeholders Article on Conversation.Com

Project Team

PPT presentation Practical recommendations for advocacy Further research opportunities

Presentation to SecondBite Leadership Team Presentation at relevant practitioner or academic conferences

Project Team

Research Bite Vignette

Summary of project approach and outcomes, recommendations for policy change

Downloadable short report for web Project Team/ SecondBite Research Manager/SecondBite Marketing

Media Release Summary of project approach and outcomes, recommendations for policy change

Relevant outcomes disseminated via Twitter and Facebook (SecondBite)

Project Team/ SecondBite Research Manager /SecondBite Marketing

Donor Event/Newsletter

Brief project summary SecondBite Donor Communications SecondBite Research

Manager/SecondBite Marketing Funding acquittal reports

Project process and deliverables Specific funder requirements SecondBite Research Manager/Fundraising Manager

5.0 INTERNAL USE ONLY

5.1 Benefit for internal stakeholders

5.2 Marketing Manager

INSERT STATEMENT OF HOW RESEARCH FINDINGS WILL BE USED FOR MARKETING PURPOSES

5.3 Fundraising Manager


INSERT STATEMENT OF HOW RESEARCH FINDINGS WILL BE USED FOR FUNDRAISING PURPOSES

Benchmarking Food Insecurity Knowledge and attitudes amongst the Australian and UK Public

Documents

Transcript of Benchmarking Food Insecurity Knowledge and attitudes amongst the Australian and UK Public