Shaping Places for Healthier Lives: solving food insecurity in south west Shropshire

News in partnership with Healthwatch Shropshire, Citizens Advice Shropshire and others

We are calling for organisations and individuals to share their insights and experiences of food insecurity in south west Shropshire.

Food insecurity is when you do not have enough affordable and nutritious food to help you live healthily. We know that some people in rural communities can face additional challenges in getting food locally and need to travel to shop. This adds to any financial difficulties they may already experience as a result of lower wages and higher energy bills.

Shaping Places for Healthier Lives – food insecurity project

The Shaping Places project aims to understand the reasons behind food insecurity, and your evidence may help to secure additional funding over the next three years to deliver programmes to relieve food poverty in south west Shropshire.

Jackie Jeffrey, Chief Executive, Citizen’s Advice Shropshire, said:-

“Food insecurity is a real thing for people living in south west Shropshire, but we need to understand more about what this means for you or the people you support.  Your feedback will make a real difference, so please fill in the questionnaire and attend our Zoom events: let’s work together to relieve food insecurity and help shape a healthier future for Shropshire.”

How can I help?

• Visit Healthwatch Shropshire‘s website, where our project page will be
• Complete our online survey for organisations
• If you have lived experience of food insecurity, complete a survey
• Or you may find it easier to chat through your experiences with us. Please call 07813 458955 to arrange a time
• Sign up for a Zoom discussion on ‘solving food insecurity in south west Shropshire’.
• Share this information with anyone interested in improving access to healthy, affordable food in Shropshire, such as colleagues, friends, family and community groups in south west Shropshire.

More about the project

• Project team: Shropshire Council’s public health team, Healthwatch Shropshire, Shropshire Food Poverty Alliance, Citizens Advice Shropshire.
• Shropshire Council and its partners have been successful in securing ‘Shaping Places for Healthier Lives’ grant funding from the Local Government Association (LGA), supported by the Health Foundation. Shaping Places focuses on reducing health inequalities by addressing a complex problem. In our case, this is food insecurity.
• We are focusing on south west Shropshire at this stage (the ‘Discovery’ phase), which includes the towns of Bishop’s Castle, Ludlow, Craven Arms, Church Stretton and their surrounding villages and hamlets.
• We will use this grant to work alongside communities in south west Shropshire to better understand the reasons causing food insecurity, and the impact it has on people’s lives. Our findings will inform our final application to the LGA for significant additional funding over the next three years. If we are successful, this will then enable us to meaningfully co-produce and deliver sustainable action to address food insecurity with our rural communities across the whole of Shropshire. 

How can I find out more?

Get in touch by emailing enquiries@healthwatchshropshire.co.uk