Two Global Public Health Nutrition MSc students have been awarded the Saunders Alma Ata Right to Health and Food Award for their work on right to food programmes in London during COVID.
The students, Carly Andersen and Eduard Flores Ventura, have been working with Food Inequalities Rebellion (FIR), a community of food and nutrition activists who feel passionately about the social injustice around food and health, amongst other charities during their degree to assess issues around the right to food and the nutrient value of food banks and boxes given to families in London during COVID.
The Saunders Alma Ata Right to Health and Food Award is an award given to students whose work and/or research helps to tackle food or health inequalities by promoting the voices of marginalised populations into policy. It also recognises the planning of health and nutrition strategies. The award was funded by Cara International Consulting Ltd.
The award is based on the Alma Ata right to health principles, which calls for global commitments to equity and community participation in health planning and policy making, and honours David Saunders, a South African right to health and food activist who passed away in 2019.
We spoke to Carly Andersen and Eduard Flores Ventura about their work on the food programmes, what the award means to them, and what they think the future of food banks are.
Can you tell us more about your course, and what interested you into taking it?
Carly: I had undertaken my undergraduate in health sciences and after a period of NHS and charity sector work, I was searching for a nutrition, dietetic or public health masters to continue progressing and furthering my interest. I remember coming to the open day and Regina, the course leader, got straight into passionately talking about the social and health inequalities of the world, including ‘that 820,000 lives of children under 5 and 20,000 maternal deaths can be saved every year just by improving the rates of breastfeeding'. I thought "Wow, never even really thought about the importance of breastfeeding but this sounds interesting!". I was also immediately swept up in her passion and enthusiasm. Other students began talking about their own thesis designs. They varied so greatly, from interviewing NHS workers, to going to Africa to listen to communities, to doing lab-based research on the gut microbiome. I was taken aback that a single course could allow for such variety and scope. I thought it was brilliant that students had taken such different journeys to arrive at the course but shared this mutual passion to learn and hope to make an active change. I think I just knew I wanted to be part of this and so I chose Westminster.
Eduard: I have always wanted to study nutrition from a global public health perspective taught by experienced professionals, and learn from their experience, a learning-by-doing approach with the freedom to research the topic that I wanted to, and the MSc GPHN gave me exactly what I wanted. It gave me a year to explore a wide variety of nutritional issues globally and to canalise my knowledge, shape it and make it useful.
How does it feel to be named the winner of the Saunders Alma Ata Right to Health and Food Award? What does this mean to you?
Carly: The very first reading we had was David Sanders and David Werner’s 'Questioning the solution', I read the entire book over the summer before the course started. I think the ideas within the book have stayed with me because they challenged pre-held conceptions, I was not aware I held and provided inspiration for topics I have never previously thought on. The right to health and food is such a fundamental aspect of life. I think this concept grew over the period of the course. The practical implications of how this is applied became more apparent as I held greater awareness of the topic. I'm beyond words to say how happy I am to have received it. It means a great deal to me on both a personal and professional level. I hope it acts as a springboard to further work in the field, creating a significant change for people.
Eduard: To be entitled to such an award is an honour to me. In the past, my work hasn’t been acknowledged in any way. This is the first award I have ever won, and it makes me look at the year I have gone through. It reminds of me all of the time I spent working to reach the high standards of the assignments from the MSc, the thesis, the volunteering to help, getting the chance to apply what I have learned and to enjoy my passion for nutrition. This award is a memory of this year and it makes me feel proud of my work.
Can you tell us about what your work entailed? How did you go about researching and getting the information you needed?
Carly: I've been working for a charity in Lambeth for a few years. When the pandemic hit, I was surprised to hear how it was impacting adults and children in different ways. I work closely with families of primary school-aged children. I wanted to look at how the root causes of childhood obesity had been impacted by the pandemic. I decided to interview parents within the Lambeth area to better understand their lived experience of the situation through a qualitative process to gain original data before undertaking thematic analysis. This allowed me to explore common themes of how access, affordability and utilisation of food had changed amongst families of school-aged children and looked at how this related to antecedents of childhood obesity.
Eduard: My thesis entailed a mixed method exploration of the believed dietary influence on cancer risk. It explored relations between the beliefs, cancer experience and perspective, sociodemographic variables, and how the aforementioned influenced how much in line the participants were with the positioning of scientific authorities. To get the information, I did a scoping review to get a thorough picture of what had been done already. I looked for gaps in literature, and tried to understand what had been done, I then used the literature to develop a semi-structured questionnaire and a background/rationale for the thesis. My supervisor was also an invaluable source of information.
What was the most surprising thing you discovered in your research?
Carly: I interviewed parents on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's diets, looking at factors that affect childhood obesity. Reflecting upon the findings, I was particularly struck by how many parents had commented on a decline in school meal quality since their had children returned to school after lockdown. School lunches have the opportunity to contribute to (at least) a third of a child's nutritional intake per day. Additionally, because Free School Meals are means-tested, poor school food quality specifically affects the low-income families. This finding was important to me as I'm passionate about campaigning for people's Right to Health and Food. Children identified as 'in need' of free school meals are being exposed to unappetising food that also provides inadequate nutrition. Parents, who in many cases are already facing economic hardship, compounded by the pandemic are having to meet the additional cost of providing packed lunch. This in turn drives parents towards cheaper alternatives that are affordable but unfortunately are often highly processed, nutrient poor but calorie-dense, with high sugar and salt content.
Eduard: I discovered that the lunch meal that I had nutritionally assessed was not reaching 50% of what is recommended for a child of 4 to 7 year. The meals were not complying with the minimum standards. School meals could be significantly improved if regulations to set stronger standards were applied, and trained professionals free of conflicts of interest supervised the labour of caterings and the kitchens of schools on a regular basis. That would be a guarantee of achieving certain nutritional quality standards.
What do you think the future of food banks are?
Carly: I think the future of food banks is inextricably linked to the health and economic prospects of society. We are still amid the COVID-19 pandemic with an uncertain winter ahead and increasing costs of food and living expenses. It appears that the widening gap of social inequality appears no sign of slowing down. Whilst this is the case, the need for food banks will remain with the potential for them to need to expand to meet increased demand. In this context, food banks act as a safety net, an emergency response. Should foodbanks need to continue, there can be traction gained in the reformation of food law in the same vein as the French law passed in 2016 directing supermarkets away from the disposal of edible food and redirected towards the charity sector. There is also the ability to replicate this with a myriad of food and retail sectors to ensure food is distributed to increase access and minimise wastage at a community and grassroots level. The issues around food banks seem to be highlighted more and more; the stigma, the means testing, the lack of choice and cultural variety. Food banks should not be seen as a way to address the underlying antecedents that affect people's right to food. Meaningful changes need to come from systematic, top-down governmental changes with a focus on right to food.
Eduard: Food banks may become the heart of communities, a place where everyone can find food and meals which truly fulfil nutritional requirements and make them feel food secure. A place where culture, diversity and the right to adequate food are taken care of. Furthermore, they are a place with built capacity to be resilient to shocks or sudden crises that may arise. A safe place where any citizen can resort to.
Find out more information about Nutrition and Public Health at Westminster.
