Lay summary
Poverty is directly related to the poor and unreliable access to nutritious food. The transformative aspect of this research is that it bypasses the determinants of healthy eating and nutrition-related disease by delivering nutritious food to the door of those in need. However the question must be asked, “If healthy food is accessible, will it be eaten?”. We aim to answer this question and subsequent others. We have not been able to identify a similar study in a review of the literature even though sustainable and community-led food distribution centres are already in place in large urban New Zealand communities. The outcomes from this study will inform a larger study to confirm generalisability and economic impact. This research is potentially transformative as the outcomes will provide the basis for interventions that address the very real issue of poverty-related nutrition-based illness and challenges our assumptions regarding food and nutrition security.