From global to local: The challenges of reducing household food insecurity

Rachel Loopstra completed her PhD at the University of Toronto, where she researched household food insecurity among low-income families in Toronto. She moved to the UK in 2014 to take up a postdoctoral research position in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford, before being appointed Lecturer in Nutrition at King's College London in 2016. In 2022, she joined the Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems at the University of Liverpool. 

Trained in nutritional sciences, Dr Loopstra applies a wider determinants framework to nutrition, examining how structural and societal factors shape what people eat and the foods they are able to access and afford. Her research predominantly focuses on food insecurity - defined as a lack of financial means to ensure sufficient and consistent access to food. She has examined the drivers behind the rise of food banks in the UK and the broader problem of food insecurity within the population and across high-income countries.

She currently leads research on the effectiveness of community food sector interventions, including a randomised controlled trial in a food bank setting and an evaluation of the impacts of a community food shop model on food insecurity and wellbeing across England, conducted as part of the SALIENT consortium.