Co-designing an impact evaluation tool for food hubs in the UK

In the UK, place-based food initiatives, herein “food hubs,” offer a range of economic, social, and/or environmental benefits via the programs, activities and support they offer. Examples of food hubs include food banks, food pantries, social supermarkets, community farms and gardens, and community cafes. Identifying, monitoring, and communicating the benefits of and areas of improvement for food hubs are important in ena­bling these organizations to access funding, scale up and/or out, and support their ambitions to enhance community development and promote community-based circular food systems (C-B CFS). However, due to constraints in time, funding, and resources, evaluation of the work of food hubs across the UK is limited to date and does not cap­ture the multidimensional benefits they provide or the impacts they have to achieve a C-B CFS. This paper presents the co-production and application of an impact evaluation tool aiming to support food hubs to capture evidence of the benefits they provide, and areas where additional benefits can be achieved across four domains: (a) sustainability and resilience; (b) health and wellbeing; (c) access and demand for healthy, local food; and (d) food secu­rity and economy. The tool, available freely online, was implemented at 10 diverse food hubs in Leeds, UK, to capture their activities and impact. Partici­pating food hubs agreed that the tool offers a comprehensive yet practical method of evidencing the impact of their activities. The evidence cap­tured using the tool could strengthen both indivi­dual PBFIs and the wider community food sector. By demonstrating their contributions to national and global priorities in health, food security, and sustainability, this evidence supports advocacy for greater policy recognition and funding. After assessing the implementation of the too across multiple PBFIs, we found how structured impact monitoring could enhance operational resilience, inform strategic planning, and reinforce the case for systemic support of C-B CFS.