Summer/Fall Pilot Evaluation Report
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Summer/Fall Pilot Evaluation Report March 2017 Page intentionally left blank. Acknowledgements The development and implementation of an in-depth evaluation of the Mobile Food Market pilot was completed with the ongoing and continuous support of the following individuals: • Aimee Gasparetto, Senior Coordinator, Community Food, Ecology Action Centre • Ali Shaver, Healthy Built Environment Coordinator, Public Health, Nova Scotia Health Authority • Heather Monahan, Nutritionist, Public Health, Nova Scotia Health Authority • Joshua Bates, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the Mayor, Halifax Regional Municipality • Julia Kemp, Project Coordinator, Mobile Food Market • Kelly Poirier, Planning & Evaluation Coordinator, Public Health, Nova Scotia Health Authority • Kristine Webber, Research Analyst, Public Health, Nova Scotia Health Authority • Mike McKenzie, Manager of Business Development, Partners for Care, Nova Scotia Health Authority For more information about the Mobile Food Market please visit www.mobilefoodmarket.ca. For more information about this evaluation report please email [email protected]. Mobile Food Market - Summer/Fall Pilot Evaluation Report i Page intentionally left blank. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................. i Table of Contents.................................................................. iii 1. Introduction....................................................................... 1 2. Understanding the Issue................................................... 3 3. Project Development........................................................ 4 4. Project Implementation..................................................... 11 5. Evaluation Methodology.................................................... 17 6. Evaluation Findings.......................................................... 22 7. Conclusions and Recommendations................................ 35 8. References ...................................................................... 36 9. Appendices....................................................................... 37 Mobile Food Market - Summer/Fall Pilot Evaluation Report iii Mobile Food Market Project Partners Many hands make light work. The Mobile Food Market is the result of the dedication, commitment and creative vision of many different partners across various organizations and groups. The following partners have worked together to turn a good idea into reality. Advisory Team Food Suppliers Funders Local Host Organizations Halifax Women with a Vision iv Executive Summary To enhance food security, healthy, culturally appropriate and sustainably produced food must be physically and economically available to all residents. While low income is often the biggest barrier to healthy food access, this barrier is further compounded by living in neighbourhoods with few affordable healthy food retail options. Individuals in areas that are under-served by healthy food retail options face additional challenges accessing healthy food, particularly seniors, newcomers, low-income residents, people with disabilities and single parents with young children. In early 2015, government representatives and local community partners began to work together to address food access issues in the Halifax region. The team spent many months creating a collaborative governance structure and detailed project plan in order to develop and implement the Mobile Food Market (MFM). The result of the work was the launch of the MFM as a 21-week pilot in May 2016. This evaluation report presents the story of how the MFM was developed and what was learned through the pilot project. The findings will be applied by project partners to inform the next steps for the MFM. We hope that others embarking on similar projects can learn from the process and findings detailed in the report. Photo: Sydney MacLennan Mobile Food Market - Summer/Fall Pilot Evaluation Report v List of Abbreviations Food ARC Food Action Research Centre HRM Halifax Regional Municipality ISANS Immigrant Settlement Association of Nova Scotia LHLO Local Host Lead Organization MFM Mobile Food Market NECHC North End Community Health Centre NS Nova Scotia NSHA Nova Scotia Health Authority List of Figures and Tables Figure 1 Description of healthy, just, sustainable food systems as described in the Making Food Matter report Figure 2 The food system, as illustrated in Food Counts: Halifax Food Assessment Figure 3 Priorities outlined by workshop participants to inform purchasing decisions Figure 4 Visual summary of topics discussed throughout the Stakeholder Workshop Figure 5 Rendering of design for the bus Figure 6 Survey administration dates for each respective pilot community Figure 7 How customers/visitors traveled to the MFM Figure 8 Average number of minutes customers/visitors spent travelling to the MFM Figure 9 Impact of the Mobile Food Market on customers’ fruit and vegetable intake Table 1 Description of partner roles Table 2 Pilot site locations, market days, times and local host lead organizations Table 3 Key expenses associated with the pilot Table 4 Comparison between original sales projections and final Mobile Food Market sales Table 5 List of outreach materials Table 6 Local host lead organizations and partners Table 7 Total number of volunteer hours contributed to the pilot Table 8 Summary of what worked well, areas for improvement and future considerations vi 1. Introduction Over the last few years, interest has grown to collaboratively create healthy, just and sustainable food systems in the Halifax region (Fig. 1). Much work across various sectors has contributed to a growing body of evidence around food issues and potential solutions. A significant contribution to this work was the Halifax Food Policy Alliance’s Food Counts: Halifax Food Assessment.1 Food Counts compiled food-related data from a variety of sources and provides an in-depth understanding of food security in the Halifax region. Another significant contribution to the conversation was the report entitled Making Food Matter: Strategies for Activating Change Together – A participatory research report on community food security in Nova Scotia,2 developed by the Food Action Research Centre (Food ARC) at Mount Saint Vincent University. Making Food Matter highlighted a variety of innovative ideas “ripe for action”. The list of innovative ideas, which included mobile/pop-up fresh and local food outlets, was tailored to the Nova Scotia context to address issues identified through Food ARC’s research. In October 2014, Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, along with partners, co-hosted a conversation focused on prioritizing key actions to create healthy and livable communities in our region. The results of this conversation are outlined in the Mayor’s Conversation on a Healthy and Liveable Community Report,3 which highlights food issues as one of five priorities discussed by participants. In addition, Halifax’s Regional Municipal Planning Strategy also includes an objective to “design communities that promote community food security.”4 In addition to the reports and projects noted above, the following initiatives and factors were important facilitators in the development of the MFM pilot: • Mobile markets identified as a potential support to help address community food insecurity through a series of community dialogues hosted by Public Health (Central Zone, Nova Scotia Health Authority) 1 Halifax Food Policy Alliance (2015). Food Counts: Halifax Food Assessment. Retrieved from: https:// halifaxfoodpolicy.wordpress.com/resources. 2 Activating Change Together for Community Food Security (2015). Retrieved from: www.feednovascotia.ca/ images/MakingFoodMatter.pdf. 3 Halifax Regional Municipality (2014). Mayor’s Conversation on Healthy and Liveable Community. Retrieved from: www.halifax.ca/council/agendasc/documents/140128ca1131.PDF. 4 Halifax Regional Municipality (2014). Regional Municipal Planning Strategy. (pg 41). Retrieved from: www.halifax. ca/regionalplanning/documents/RegionalMunicipalPlanningStrategy.pdf. Mobile Food Market - Summer/Fall Pilot Evaluation Report 1 • The advancement of Ecology Action Centre’s Our Food Project5 • Increased focus for Partners for Care in developing and managing food-related initiatives and social enterprises • Inspiring learnings and results from mobile markets in other cities Many cities, including Toronto and Ottawa, have piloted mobile food markets to increase access to affordable fruits and vegetables in neighbourhoods with limited access to fresh produce. In 2015, the Halifax Mobile Food Market project team connected with colleagues in Toronto and Ottawa who were generous in sharing their lessons learned, as well as resources and tips for developing a mobile market in Halifax. These conversations with partners from Toronto’s Mobile Good Food Market and Ottawa’s Market Mobile suggested that price and convenience were the most important factors for MFM customers. Additional success factors of the markets included partnership development, appropriate selection of market location, logistical capacity to deliver high-quality, inexpensive produce to communities, and effective engagement and training of residents and volunteers. In spring 2015, it was clear that the conditions for initiating the development of a mobile market in Halifax were abundant. The need to increase food access was clear; relevant, locally focused research was supportive; artners from a variety of organizations and governments were interested