Birmingham Basket
About this good practice
One of the big questions the good practice is addressing is how to influence citizens to make healthier food choices and how can the food economy support a more sustainable model. The focus of the approach has shifted from obesity to transforming the food system. By understanding how people are spending their money on food, the project aims to develop policies to foster better food choices. Birmingham organised the Great City Food Digital Treasure Hunt to gather digital data available through the web to increase their understanding of the food environment of the city – this was part of the Digital Leaders Week held in Birmingham and across the UK. The project created an innovative alternative local metric, the Birmingham Basket, which captures local retail spend metrics to identify consumer retail habits and inform policy development and measure the impact of the initiatives – harnessing the power of data to support a healthier, more sustainable food policy in Birmingham.
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Evidence of success
Through initial market scoping the city has identified at least one supplier capable of delivering the required data, information and insight to understand how the people of Birmingham purchase food. They have decided that a full competitive tender process should be utilised to ensure that the city commissions the most innovative and value-for-money solution. The full tender process was initiated before the end of October 2020 for delivery of baseline data by the end of December 2020.
Potential for learning or transfer
The project demonstrates the power of effective data collection applied to food systems - it is contributing to a knowledge of consumer habits and what the city needs to do to disrupt unhealthy choices: helping to inform local residents on healthy living and wellbeing to improve their living standards.
Further information
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