Research partnership to tackle dietary inequalities in Glasgow
Published: 7 August 2025
Researchers, local government and food organisations are coming together to tackle poor diet and ill health in some of the most deprived areas in Glasgow
Researchers, local government and food organisations are coming together to tackle poor diet and ill health in some of the most deprived areas in Glasgow.
The new research project, funded with more than £1m by UK Research & Innovation, aims to better understand the reasons for dietary and health inequalities in low-income areas of Glasgow. The project will also evaluate the impact of the establishment of new, locally run food markets to help support healthful diets through better access to healthier produce.
The three-year partnership is led by Dr Ada Garcia at the University of Glasgow, and includes experts from The Glasgow School of Art and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, alongside a wider team including Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Food Policy Partnership and Glasgow Community Food Network.
Deprivation is a major driver of poor diet and ill health in urban households across the UK. However, within low-income areas, people’s food choices are shaped by several complex factors, including affordability, accessibility, culture, the local food environment and individual preferences. As a result, solutions to improve access to healthy food require a range of different approaches, tailored to the needs of specific areas.
To tackle these issues in low-income areas of Glasgow, the research partnership will begin by working with three communities in the city to better understand healthier food access needs. The team will look at a range of potential factors, including local availability of fresh produce, alongside the reasons driving food purchase behaviours and diet inequalities. The inclusion of creative art to widen access to research is an innovative aspect of the project.
Using their initial findings as a foundation and with support from the experiences of a pilot market, the partnership will then work with two communities to create locally community-run weekend food markets, with emphasis on access to culturally appropriate and affordable produce, alongside practical and useable dietary and cooking advice and art activities to promote community engagement.
Finally, the team will assess the impact of the weekend food markets, at both a household and community level, to determine whether this approach could be used in other low-income areas to help improve access to food, diet and wellbeing.
One of the first community partners the research team will work with is The Courtyard Pantry Enterprise, based in Wester Common in Ruchill, a charity and social enterprise, focused on serving the local community with the objective of helping to alleviate food insecurity in their area, and to provide employment, training and volunteering to disadvantaged groups.
Dr Ada Garcia, principal investigator of the study, University of Glasgow, said: “We are delighted to have secured this funding to deliver an ambitious place-based multidisciplinary research collaboration that aims to improve access to food, diet and health of communities in need in our city.”
Professor Emilie Combet, Professor of Human Nutrition and a co-investigator on the study, said “Dr Garcia is a passionate Public Health Nutritionist who champions research on dietary inequalities as a theme lead of the Scottish Alliance for Food. This project is very much aligned with the vision of the Alliance to bring transformation to the food system in Scotland via collaborations across sectors and disciplines.”
Jill Muirie, Public Health Programme Manager at the Glasgow Centre for Population Health and a partner in the research project said “Too many areas of Glasgow have limited access to affordable, nutritious food, which makes it hard for local people to eat a healthy diet. Increasing local access to good food is one of the aims of the Glasgow City Food Plan and this research will help us understand the contribution that locally-based food markets can make to improving dietary health.”
Dale Todd, Managing Director of the Courtyard Pantry Enterprise, said “'We are looking forward to working with our partners to deliver and evaluate our food market. In a practical sense, this pilot will give folk, who may be on lower incomes, the opportunity to buy fresh, nutritious, locally sourced fruit and vegetables, but in a much broader sense, it represents a step towards recognising the right to food as a social justice issue, engaging in changing the structures of the food system and creating genuine choice for those in the local community.''
Lydia Stewart, Service Design Lecturer, School of Innovation and Technology at The Glasgow School of Art, said: "When designing for complex systems, like the food system, it's crucial to work with communities in approachable and reciprocal ways to ensure our work reflects the diverse lived experiences and serves the needs of the community. Creative participatory methods invite people to visually express themselves, often accessing lesser-heard stories and knowledge, which become assets in designing meaningful systems change."
Enquiries: ali.howard@glasgow.ac.uk or elizabeth.mcmeekin@glasgow.ac.uk
First published: 7 August 2025