Easington Improving local availability of Fruit and Veg
Convenience Stores tend to be situated in the heart of
communities and are often easily accessible to the majority of the community. Unfortunately the fruit and vegetables they sell tend to be poor quality and are usually more expensive than supermarkets. Donna Thompson talks about the retailers project which was established in November 2006 as a pilot to increase the availability of low cost, good quality fruit and vegetables within the community.
Background
The pilot was conducted with Shahs general store in Horden, a village in County Durham (County Durham is the most deprived County in the country), the convenience store on average has approximately 500 customers daily.
Aims and Objectives
- To develop a retailer project that promotes and improves access and availability of affordable, good quality fruit and vegetables within the local community .
- To encourage retailers to stock a range of fruit and vegetables
- To encourage local residents to buy fruit and vegetables from their local convenience store
- To encourage shopkeepers to use local suppliers
- To demonstrate to food retailers that selling fruit and vegetables can increase profit
Partners
East Durham Business Services
The Food Chain Company
Methodology
The pilot was conducted with a family run convenience store. An initial visit was made to the store to view the range of fresh produce on offer, and to ask the retailer their views on selling fruit and vegetables.
The next step was to establish what funding was available for the project, this involved a meeting with partners. It was decided that the PCT and business service would provide 80% of the funding with 20% input from the retailer.
We also agreed with Shahs to pay for a display stand, a set of scales, and to pay a subsidy for the fruit and vegetables. Total funding came to approximately £550.
Research was conducted into what fruit and vegetables customers would like to be able to buy from the store to identify what produce to purchase from the supplier. The resource used to undertake this research can be downloaded below.
A meeting was held with the supplier to arrange delivery days. This was decided on 1 – 2 days a week (Friday and Monday) depending on demand. ‘Healthy produce’ shelf labels were designed to highlight the display. The display stand was then moved from the back of the store to the front to be instantly visible to customers as they walked through the door.
Promotion
The family of the participating shopkeeper had previously been involved with the PCT as a food and health volunteer.
Resources
Funding, Scales, Display Stand.
Evaluation
Still ongoing. Sales of fruit, vegetables and salad and wastage and profit margins are being monitored weekly for 12 weeks. Follow up planned for every 2 months A questionnaire completed by the retailer which monitors uptake and profit but also captures the positve and negative aspects of being involved in the scheme.
Lessons Learned
The resource used to determine products needed is very simple. I devised a simple excel chart for the shopkeeper and he then asked customers what they would like to buy and tallied up on the chart.
I had wanted to put up a flip chart and sticky dots on a visible wall (make it really bright and attractive) and have a day chatting to customers around fruit and veg and get them to indicate next to their most favourite fruit, vegetable and salad item with 3 sticky dots, their 2nd favourite with 2 dots and their 3rd favourite with 1 dot (to do for each ie fruit, veg and salad) but the shopkeeper wasn't keen.
Trying to organise meetings with the shopkeeper due to long working hours can be a problem, they often have to be conducted while they are working so being well planned and flexible is essential. This has also led to a reluctance to complete monitoring forms for evaluation. Evaluation tools therefore need to be kept simple for easy completion.
Regular visits to the store are important to ensure the fruit and vegetables sold are well stocked and appealing to customers.
Future Developments
- To promote a healthy recipe stand where all ingredients can be bought from the shop and displayed in one place, special offers will be used on ingredients
- To create special offers, such as meal deals, where customers receive a free piece of fruit when they purchase a sandwich
- Role out to more retailers
Contact Details
Contact Name: Donna Thompson
Job Title: Health Development Specialist (Food and Health)
Phone: 0191 569 2812
Email: donna.thompson@cdpct.nhs.uk
Organisation: County Durham PCTAddress: Centre For Health, Whitehouse Business Park, Peter Lee, Co Durham, SR8 2RT
Other Resources: