New report highlights challenges faced by older and disabled people accessing food in their homes

The new Food at Home report from the University of Sheffield explores disabled and older people’s access to food in their own home. It is the result of a knowledge exchange project that explored existing evidence and heard directly from people with lived experience as well as local and national government, service providers, Disabled People's Organisations and UK-based NGO stakeholders. This included Sustain who contributed to the research, bringing experience from Good Food Local and Food Poverty work.

The report explores a wide range of issues including challenges people can face and the adaptations they make, available assistance and support, the policy context across the four Nations, as well as gaps in policy and support. Specific areas included in the report include access to special diets, use of pre-prepared or ready-to-eat food, in-store and online access, the role of equipment and informal and formal support.

The research includes examples of good practice such as affordable meals on wheels services in Fife and Edinburgh and food support training for homecare staff in Monmouthshire, as well as examples of participation of disabled and older people in shaping policy and practice from Greater Manchester and Scotland. 

The report offers a robust set of recommendations  based on learnings from people's lived experiences and the changes they want to see to improve access to food for older and disabled people.

Recommendations set out how local and national government, homecare and food providers, food and meals retailers, funders, NGOs, Disabled People's Organisations and researchers can ensure better understanding of, and an improved policy and practice response to, disabled and older people’s food access needs. This learning has already influenced Sustain's Good Food Local measures, used to benchmark actions that local authorities across the country can take to improve access to food for older and disabled people.  

“People’s lived experiences of accessing food at home and insight from a wide range of stakeholders gathered during this project highlight the importance of addressing the food access needs of disabled and older people through policy and practice, as well as ensuring people’s voices are heard and acted upon within policy-making.” Dr Hannah Lambie-Mumford and Simon Shaw CF, Food at Home 

Read the report