THE GOOD FOOD JUNCTION INTERVENTION: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF FOOD INSECURITY AND VEGETABLE AND FRUIT CONSUMPTION

In the fall of 2012, the Good Food Junction (GFJ) grocery store opened in the heart of a food desert in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The research for this thesis was conducted between summer of 2013 and fall of 2014. In January of 2016 the GFJ closed due to poor sales. While it was open, the mandate of the GFJ was to provide affordable healthy food to surrounding neighborhood residents and to sell local products and produce where possible. The GFJ was a not-for-profit cooperative social enterprise, with a secondary goal of creating good jobs for the area’s residents. The GFJ provides an important research opportunity for examining a large-scale population health intervention in a particular food environment. This study has three purposes. First, to identify whether the GFJ had an impact on household food insecurity, and vegetable and fruit consumption of patrons. Second, assessing the dose (frequency of shopping)-response (household food insecurity or vegetable and fruit consumption) of the intervention. Third, to examine the relationship between household food insecurity and vegetable and fruit consumption among GFJ patrons. This study employs a longitudinal survey design. Participants were GFJ patrons who were the primary grocery patron for their household. The survey included demographic, food frequency, household food insecurity, and self-reported health measures and was administered at three time points approximately six months apart. The frequency with which participants shopped at the GFJ increased over time. When looking at main effects using the frequency a study participant shopped at the GFJ as a predictor of exposure (dose), the results did not indicate a significant change for either household food insecurity or vegetable and fruit consumption. The only significant result identified for household food insecurity was an interaction between the frequency of shopping and educational attainment. A relationship between household food insecurity and vegetable and fruit consumption was not found. This study can inform intervention research to show that interventions which only change the food environment in an area of high deprivation may not be sufficient. Instead, a more comprehensive and upstream approach to address the underlying issues households in deprived situations face is needed