Supporting Better Health Through Nutrition: A New Program in Trial Phase 

FareShare has launched a new initiative aimed at improving health outcomes for people living with food insecurity and type 2 diabetes. Our Nutritionally Tailored Meals pilot is evaluating whether ready to eat, diabetes-friendly meals, designed by dieticians and clinicians, can improve health, reduce barriers to nutrition, and enhance quality of life. 

About the Program

In 2023, FareShare partnered with The George Institute of Global Health (TGI) to investigate the nutritional quality of charitable ready-made meals. The findings showed that FareShare meals contained adequate non-starchy vegetable content, were low in sugar, and had minimal use of processed meats1. Building on this research, and inspired by successful ‘Food is Medicine” programs in the USA, FareShare and TGI developed Australia’s first pilot of a diabetes-friendly, nutritionally tailored meals initiative in 2024.  

Goals for the Trial

This pilot is helping us: 

  • Understand the impact of nutritionally tailored meals on participants’ well-being 
  • Identify logistical needs for scaling the program 
  • Gather feedback from participants, clinicians, and community partners 

We are collecting both qualitative feedback and health data where appropriate, in line with ethical research and privacy standards. 

The FareShare chefs have developed a selection of 28 master recipes which have been tested and approved by dieticians for being suitable for people with Type 2 diabetes. 

Having built strong partnerships with healthcare partners, community organisations, and other key stakeholders, we are now well underway with the pilot.  

Why are nutritionally tailored meals important? 

FareShare’s purpose is purpose is to provide healthy food and nutrious cooked meals – caring for people and planet.  

Australia is facing a deepening crisis: poor quality diets are causing and exacerbating chronic conditions. Suboptimal diet, for instance, causes more heart disease deaths than smoking and physical inactivity combined2.

Studies show that access to nutritionally tailored meals greatly improves health outcomes, lowers healthcare costs, improves the quality of patient care, and relieves stress on the individual and within families 3-6.   

While every person at risk of, or with, chronic diseases is recommended to eat healthier diets, this can prove very difficult, especially during periods of vulnerability.    

Chef Emma holds up a tray filled with a Diabetes-friendly Meal

What’s Next

This is an early but important step in developing a sustainable program that could reach more individuals in need. We’ll share updates and outcomes as the program develops.

References

  1. Investigating the nutritional quality of charitable ready meals for people experiencing food insecurity-An Australian case study. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39902574/
  2. Global Burden of Disease Study: Data Visualization. https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-compare/ (accessed February, 2024).
  3. Darmon N, Drewnowski A. Contribution of food prices and diet cost to socioeconomic disparities in diet quality and health: a systematic review and analysis. Nutr Rev 2015; 73(10): 643-60.
  4. Backholer K, Spencer E, Gearon E, et al. The association between socio-economic position and diet quality in Australian adults. 2016; 19(3): 477-85. 
  5. Choi YJ, Crimmins EM, Ailshire JA. Food insecurity, food environments, and disparities in diet quality and obesity in a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older Americans. Prev Med Rep 2022; 101912. 
  6. Lindberg R, McNaughton SA, Abbott G, Pollard CM, Yaroch AL, Livingstone KM. The Diet Quality of Food-Insecure Australian Adults-A Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Analysis. Nutrients 2022; (19). 
Skip to content