Exploring enablers of and barriers to a fruit and vegetable voucher scheme in England: insights from the Fresh Street Community feasibility study

Pan, J., Relton, C., Howard, L., Garg, P., Puranik, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6427-8414, Thomas, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5699-4508, Bradbeer, J., Sutton, R., Wagstaff, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9400-8641 and Pettinger, C. (2025) Exploring enablers of and barriers to a fruit and vegetable voucher scheme in England: insights from the Fresh Street Community feasibility study. Nutrients, 17 (3). 483. ISSN 2072-6643 doi: 10.3390/nu17030483

Abstract/Summary

Background/Objectives: Many deprived communities in the UK have low fruit and vegetable (FV) intake, leading to poor health outcomes. Fresh Street is a place-based voucher approach that enables households to buy FV from local independent suppliers. Fresh Street Community embeds this approach within community hubs, thus enabling households to use vouchers to purchase FV from community centres. This paper explores the enablers and barriers influencing the uptake of Fresh Street Community in two UK urban areas of high deprivation. Methods: This three-phase exploratory qualitative study was informed by ‘co-production’ with community researchers at both sites: (1) literature review and observations identifying enablers and barriers in FV voucher schemes; (2) semi-structured interviews and focus groups with the research team and community food researchers to ‘validate’ the factors identified in phase 1 and to develop explanatory narratives for these factors; and (3) participatory and thematic analysis of the enablers and barriers to finalise the identified factors. Results: A total of ten enablers and sixteen barriers were validated across both sites. However, differences in local contexts and operational procedures impacted future FV voucher scheme implementation. The important role of community food researchers to engage participants and support the synthesis of findings is also presented. Conclusions: This study offers practical and critical insights for researchers, community food researchers, and practitioners on factors that influence a community centre-based FV voucher scheme to address nutritional inequalities.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/120601
Identification Number/DOI	10.3390/nu17030483
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences > Human Nutrition Research Group
Publisher	MDPI
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