INTRO UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT LISTENING TO PEOPLE OBSERVING FOODSCAPES CRAFTING INSIGHTS
Listening to residents, community members, decision makers, and everyday foodscape users is an important way to gain an understanding of challenges and opportunities in a neighbourhood's foodscape.
The engagement methods in this section will help you begin to identify, at a high level, how people think and feel about their food options and experiences in their community. They can help answer questions like:
— Does healthy food feel accessible to people in this area? Why or why not?
— How are the food places in this area promoting (or creating barriers to) healthy dietary behaviours?
This page introduces a few basic methods for engaging with people about foodscapes: intercept interviews, targeted interviews, and questionnaires. In a more comprehensive Foodscapes Assessment, you might dive deeper with a more thorough outreach strategy, including focus groups, workshops, and other engagement methods. These will help you gain a deeper understanding of people's dietary habits, cultural relationship to food, why they make the choices they do, and how urban design and programming strategies can make it easier for people to make healthy food choices.
Listening to people
METHODS IN THIS SECTION
→ Intercept interviews
→ Targeted interviews
→ Online questionnaires
Intercept interviews
Intercept interviews involve taking engagement materials to the street and approaching passers by to get a general sense of assets and challenges in the community. This method relies on quickly gaining trust from strangers. If you are or may be perceived as an outsider to the community, you might need to build trust in other ways – for example, by equipping a trusted local partner to perform the surveys.
How to conduct intercept interviews
Prepare a set of 3-10 key questions to ask community members. You can use the worksheet "Sample Key Questions" for help.
Go to a popular community destination in your study area, like a food place, transit station, park, or main street.
To avoid unconscious biases, approach every third or fifth person passing you by. If the person you approach declines your interview, start again.
Approach people with a smile! Tell them in one sentence what you are studying and why, and ask if they have a few minutes to tell you about how they experience food in their neighbourhood.
Make it easy to engage – ask simple questions. Your pre-prepared questions can be a great gateway to a more in-depth conversation.
Consider offering people something for their time, like a local gift card.
This method is best used for
Capturing a snapshot of people’s experiences with food and food places in the community.
Taking the pulse of the community quickly.
Reaching the people who use a particular space, even if they don’t live there.
Reaching people who might not have the time or interest in attending a community meeting.
Gathering anecdotal insights that can be explored further with data collection.
EXAMPLE FROM THE FIELD
In Copenhagen intercept surveys with young people aged 12-16 revealed their discomfort in food places that appear ‘fancy.’ For this demographic group, the aesthetics of a food place (its cleanliness, furniture, facade, and decor) determined if they would visit more than what was on the menu or the price of food.
Reference guide
Guidance on how to formulate a good question, with a list of sample questions that have been helpful in past foodscape studies.
Estimated time: 1-2 hours
Targeted interviews
Targeted interviews allow you to learn from the organizations and community champions who are trusted, embedded members of the community.
How to conduct targeted interviews
In person or over the phone, facilitate a conversation with a trusted community partner to learn about the study site and population. You can also use this conversation to identify existing programs and social infrastructure that this assessment might inform and build upon. It is important to build on existing work and relationships of mutual trust that is already present in a community.
Key community members or decision makers often have specific audiences they work with. Use this conversation to learn about the needs, experiences, and interests of these groups.
This method is best used for
Getting a lay of the land of issues related to health, food, and community in this neighbourhood.
Identifying key locations where people access food in the neighbourhood and where they tend to gather in community.
Learning about any current or past health or food initiatives that have been undertaken in the area.
Understanding any legacies of disenfranchisement that community members may have experienced, and how this may affect their perceptions of community research or community planning efforts.
Online questionnaires
Online questionnaires are surveys that collect information about how people use a foodscape and what they think about it. Through an online questionnaire you can also determine themes such as the demographics of people who visit a neighbourhood but are not residents, people's favourite food places within the area, or how often people cook at home, compared to eating out.
Because questionnaires are answered individually and without assistance, they should be easy to understand and quick to complete.
How to distribute questionnaires
Determine how to distribute the questionnaire online. You might work with local community members or groups to identify mailing lists or create eye-catching flyers advertising your study to pin up in popular community spaces.
Use an online survey service. There are many options to choose from, with different price points, functionalities, and design.
Make the questionnaire as simple and short as possible to increase response rates. It should not take any longer than five minutes for someone to complete.
Craft a catchy and concise introduction to the survey, which can be added to the email or flyer. This introduction should explain who you are, what you are studying and why, and thank them for spending a few minutes on filling out questionnaire.
Unlike intercept surveys, questionnaires provide more privacy for respondents. Therefore, you might receive more honest responses to sensitive questions like income. Still, be sure to let participants know that all demographic questions are confidential and used solely to understand if the survey is reaching a representative group of people.
This method is best used for
Collecting data from broad audience.
Understanding how people of different demographic groups experience foodscapes differently.
Getting a range of responses to specific questions allowing for more quantitative analysis.
Reference guide
Guidance on how to formulate a good question, with a list of sample questions that have been helpful in past foodscape studies.
Estimated time: 1-2 hours