Each year we are lucky enough to partner with students from Monash University’s Master of Dietetics Program and provide an opportunity for students to complete their public health placement. This year’s group of students did an incredible job helping out at our markets by assisting with set up and pack down, serving our wonderful customers and packing our Fruit & Veggie Box orders. If you visited any of our markets between February and April, or follow us on social media there is a chance you may already recognise their friendly faces.
Another very important part of what these students do, and one that we’re super grateful for, is conduct our Impact Evaluation, if you met any of this year’s students, you may have even participated in this survey yourself! The valuable data gathered from this impact evaluation allows us to identify our markets’ successes, as well as areas for improvement so we are incredibly thankful to the students who assist us with conducting customer feedback surveys each year, as well as all of our customers who take the time to complete it!
Our 2022 Impact Evaluation
Affordable Fresh Produce
Each year Monash placement students also conduct price comparisons for our produce, where they compare our produce prices to that of retailers surrounding our market locations. We are glad to see that although there have been quite a few factors that have resulted in the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables increasing throughout Australia, that our markets still provide more affordable produce than other retailers in the areas where are markets are located.
Healthy Connected Communities
We are thrilled that after a year of snap lockdowns, several market relocations and few unfortunate cancellations, that 93% of customers who visit our market said that they felt more connected to the community by doing so! We are also excited to see that 93% of our customers said our produce was of “excellent quality” as it is important to us that our produce is not only affordable, but also high-quality fresh produce, that will last between markets. We love that our markets are helping our customers to increase their intake of fresh fruit and vegetables with 56% of customers saying they consumer more fruit and 64% saying they consumer more vegetables, since shopping at our markets.
Who shops with us?
Everyone is welcome at our markets, and every dollar spent with us means a greater impact in our community, that being said, here is a snapshot of who shopped with us during February and April this year.
Food Security
At The Community Grocer we are all about improving physical, social and economic access to fresh food. Here is information about how our customers experience access to food.
Thank you
A huge thank you again to Casey, Cheryl, Maansi, Marina, Sheng, Steph I, and Steph R for conducting this year’s Impact Evaluation and providing us with this valuable data and another big thank you to all of our amazing customers who took the time to participate in our customer feedback surveys!