ABSTRACT
A varied body of research has sought to investigate the nature, scale, extent, and severity of food insecurity. This has included debates and developments around the terminology (1) and metaphors (2) used to define various aspects of the problem. Alongside this, there has been significant work theorising food insecurity in terms of rights and social justice (3, 4). The evolution of food-focused civil society organisations has been traced though a timeline of food poverty research in the UK in Chapter 3. The rationale and capacity of food aid organisations, like food banks, often in collaboration with academics, to gather data necessary to monitor food insecurity and campaign for policy change has been explored. The recent collection of food insecurity data in a national survey following years of campaigns (5) has expanded the range of possibilities of local-level research and planning. The complexity of this rapidly changing research landscape necessitates a conceptual framework; an analytical structure to support a consistent approach to applied local-level research. Our proposed framework focuses on (i) understanding the local stressors that exacerbate national drivers of food insecurity and (ii) harnessing local resources and facilitators to effectively mitigate it.
