Nearly 1 in 4 households in Canada are experiencing food insecurity. Food insecurity contributes to a higher intake of ultra-processed foods in parents and children because these foods tend to be inexpensive and convenient. This study will test whether a healthy food subsidy with or without a community teaching kitchen intervention can help parents and their children to cook more meals at home from whole, minimally processed foods and thereby consume fewer ultra-processed foods.

We will do a randomized clinical trial to study the impact of a 6-month healthy food subsidy with or without a community teaching kitchen intervention on the intake of minimally processed and ultra-processed foods, food security, health-related practices and beliefs, patient-reported outcomes and objective health markers of 250 parent-child pairs who live in food insecure households. This study will have 4 groups:

1. No-intervention control group: This group will not receive any intervention
2. Healthy food subsidy group: This group will receive $20/household member per week to spend on healthy foods at supermarkets
3. Community teaching kitchen group: This group will participate in 2 x 90-minute group-based cooking classes per month
4. Healthy food subsidy + Community teaching kitchen group: This group will receive $20/household member per week to spend on healthy foods at supermarkets and will participate in 2 x 90-minute group-based cooking classes per month

We will collect information from participants about what they eat, their food insecurity and other health-related outcomes using surveys and physical measurements. A qualitative study will also explore patients’ experiences during the program.

The findings from this research will help to understand how we can help families living in food insecure households to consume more whole, minimally processed foods and fewer ultra-processed foods.  This may help to improve their health over the longer-term.

Roles and Responsibilities
We are looking for patient research partners who are parents of a child aged 8-17 years who lives with them at least 50% of the time. Parents should be the main food shopper and preparer for their household and have experienced food insecurity in the past 6 months. We define food insecurity as answering yes to 1 of the following questions:

• “within the past 6 months we worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more”
• “within the past 6 months the food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to buy more”

Our patient partners will join in up to 3 x 60-90 minute co-design meetings on Zoom in October and November 2025. During these meetings  patient partners will participate in small group discussions and offer their insights and feedback on the plans for this study. One person from each small group will share back with the full group. The suggestions made by each group will be used to improve the design of the study.

Time Commitment
Up to 3 x 60-90 minute co-design meetings during October and November 2025 to be held on Zoom. If our grant is successful at stage 1 we may hold additional meetings in 2026 to plan for stage 2.

Compensation/Reimbursement
Patient partners will be offered compensation at a rate of $28/hour.

For more information or to apply:
Dana Olstad
dana.olstad@ucalgary.ca