TY - JOUR T1 - Making a difference in healthcare: community food provision during the COVID-19 pandemic JF - BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health JO - BMJ Nutrition DO - 10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000106 SP - bmjnph-2020-000106 AU - Luke Buckner AU - James Bradfield AU - Sumantra Ray Y1 - 2021/01/12 UR - http://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2021/02/22/bmjnph-2020-000106.abstract N2 - Dear Editors,As a group following the impact COVID-19 has and will have on food security, we are writing in response to the ‘Global Food Security editorial’.1 The NNEdPro Global Centre2 works across the breadth of nutrition, with global food security at the heart of our work. Here we share a conversation exploring this topic in the UK with Lee Shephard (LS), Director of Corporate Affairs and Policy at apetito and Wiltshire Farm Foods (WFF),3 which provide food provision for healthcare inpatient services and community food delivery to patients through social care, respectively.In 2018–2019, NHS hospitals reported spending around £633.8 million per year on inpatient hospital food, providing 140.9 million main meals at an average spend of £4.50 per main meal per day.4 Of these inpatient meals provided, the campaign for better hospital food stated that 17% of hospitals provided ready plated food and only 30% of hospitals prepared food on-site.5 In community health and social care, a range of companies already provide ready-prepared meals, delivered to people’s homes, through independent and partially funded direct delivery or meals on wheels services. During the pandemic, a new cohort of people now required food deliveries, including those recently discharged from hospital, or those asked to stay at home and self-isolate for 12 weeks due to being over 75 years of age or having predisposing comorbidities. Further to this, recent media attention has focused on the concerning levels of … ER -