Scaling out Fruit & Vegetable Vouchers in the UK

Following on from the Bridging the Gap retail pilots, Cardiff Planet Card, Edinburgh Community Food Kiosk, Tower Hamlets Food Co-ops, Liverpool Queen of Greens, Carrickfergus Friendly Food Club and Newtownards accessible vegbox, Sustain commissioned the Organic Research Centre to model the potential return on investment of a regional or national organic fruit and veg voucher scheme. This report presents various models and identifies the policies and funding required to roll these out in various locations across the UK. The Organic Research Centre used data from the pilots alongside published literature for their economic modelling.

Key findings

Two voucher schemes offer the best balance of equity, feasibility and system impact:

• The Neighbourhood Community Organic Fruit and Veg Fund scheme is an £11 weekly voucher redeemable on organic fruit and veg in local independent retailers to everyone in high-need communities
  • For every £1 of public investment in the national neighbourhood organic fruit and veg fund scheme, £3.8 of benefits are generated
• The Organic Healthy Start Uplift is an optional uplift of £6.75 for those who are eligible for Healthy Start provided the entire £11 weekly voucher is redeemed on organic fruit and veg in local independent retailers
  • For every £1 of public investment in the national organic healthy start uplift scheme, £2.52 of benefits are generated
• The organic healthy start uplift scheme is larger, so overall it will have a greater beneficial impact
• For both schemes, higher participation substantially improves cost effectiveness
• Support from complementary policies shaping food production and access, health and local delivery schemes will be crucial to success
• Costs could be shared across the government departments that would benefit from the scheme including DEFRA, DHSC / NHS and local government/place based funding given that the benefits would also be spread across these areas