Connecting supply of and demand for nutritious foods through a value chain approach: the Thursday Bundle

Urban populations in low- and middle-income countries face growing challenges in accessing healthy diets. The Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) project works to better connect local supply of nutritious foods produced using agroecological practices with a growing demand for these respective foods even from vulnerable consumers. In Bangladesh, NICE has been testing a simple market-based solution known as the “Thursday Bundle”: Curated weekly bundles of vegetables and other nutritious foods are sold through NICE-supported vendors at prices that can compete with those in local markets, but that also provide a livelihood to vendors and producers thanks to short value chains and coordinated aggregation. The idea behind the model is to make safe, nutritious food easier to choose when shopping for everyday items. Rather than expecting families to buy food items separately and in bulk., the Thursday Bundle brings together selected ingredients in one affordable, hygienically packaged bundle. Within only eight weeks of testing, nearly 2’000 bundles were sold in Rangpur and Dinajpur, two secondary cities in northwestern Bangladesh. The initiative was piloted with 26 vendors who had received training in food safety, hygiene and nutrition. The sales rate reached 95%, with the vendors and their families consuming the remaining products themselves. Food safety and trust were central to the pilot. Vendors explained to customers that the produce was grown without harmful chemicals, using methods such as bio-fertilizers and/or bio pesticides. The bundles also included QR codes, enabling customers to access further information about the NICE project and its producers, thereby building trust through personalization. The NICE project demonstrates that bringing together supply- and demand-side interventions that are accessible to vulnerable consumers is key for transforming food systems but requires a holistic approach that focuses on the entire value chain. Multisectoral coordination and collaboration, as well as mutual trust and understanding between sectors, are central to making such holistic food system initiatives a reality.