For many households, eating healthier is not simply a matter of knowing what foods are nutritious. It also depends on whether safe, diverse, and affordable foods are available in the right quantity, at the right price, and in a form that is easy to buy and prepare.
To address this challenge in Bangladesh, the Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) project is testing a simple market-based solution known as the “Thursday Bundle”.
Implemented under NICE Outcome 3, the Thursday Bundle pilot was designed to increase demand for safe and nutritious vegetables among city dwellers while encouraging the production and consumption of healthy foods. The initiative was introduced in Dinajpur and Rangpur, where curated weekly bundles of vegetables and other nutritious foods were sold through NICE-supported vendors at prices that consumers could compare with local markets.
The idea behind the model is to make safe, nutritious foods easier to choose during everyday shopping. Instead of expecting families to buy several food items separately and in bulk amounts, the Thursday Bundle brings together selected ingredients in one affordable, hygienically packaged bundle. Each bundle is designed to support fresh and practical meal preparation for an average household of four to five people, helping families buy only what they need for the day while reducing the need to purchase or store large quantities.
“The Thursday Bundle was designed to make safe and nutritious foods more accessible to households through a simple weekly shopping option. By combining affordability, convenience, and trusted local vendors, the pilot demonstrates how small changes in the market can encourage healthier and safe food choices and improve access to nutritious diets,” said Nushrat Alam Biva, Nutrition Specialist, NICE in SAF Bangladesh.
A Practical Response to Real Barriers
The pilot was developed in response to barriers that often prevent low-income households from adopting healthier diets. These include the cost of nutritious foods, uncertainty about what to buy, concerns about food safety, and the time required to purchase ingredients separately.
Through the Thursday Bundle, NICE sought to reduce these barriers by offering a curated mix of nutritious foods at a competitive price point. The bundles included salad items such as cucumber, tomato, carrot, green chilli, onion, and lemon, as well as mixed vegetables such as brinjal, sweet gourd, and beans. Other bundle options included bitter gourd bundles and drumsticks-pulse-based combinations.
The bundle design was also informed by Bangladesh’s NICE-supported nutritious, safe, and value-chain produce, including foods such as tomatoes, cucumber, drumsticks, bitter gourd, sweet gourd, and brinjals. These foods were selected for their seasonal availability, nutritional value, their relevance to local diets, and their potential to be integrated into everyday meals.
Early Signs of Demand
Early data from the pilot points to strong consumer interest. Across Rangpur and Dinajpur, 1884 bundles were sold, reaching 1711 unique households. Women accounted for 68% of consumers reached, which confirms their central role in household food purchasing and meal preparation.
The pilot also showed strong demand in Dinajpur. On 2 April 2026, 170 packets were prepared across salad and drumstick bundles. Of these, 162 were sold, representing a 95% sales rate. The salad bundle recorded 119 sales out of 125 packets, while the drumstick bundle recorded 43 sales out of 45 packets.
Consumer feedback suggests that affordability, freshness, convenience, and trust were key motivations for purchase. Several customers appreciated that the bundles were clean, well-arranged, and easier to buy than purchasing ingredients separately. Others highlighted the value of safe vegetables being made available at low prices.
“The package of the salad bundle is very beautiful. The people of Dinajpur will benefit if this program continues,” said one customer in Dinajpur.
The Administrator of Dinajpur Zilla Porisad also described the provision of safe vegetables at low prices for residents through the NICE project as “highly commendable.”
Building Trust through Traceability
Food safety and trust were central to the pilot. Vendors explained to customers that the produce was grown without harmful chemicals, using practices such as biofertilizers and biopesticides. The bundles also included QR codes, allowing customers to access more information about the NICE project and the producers.
For some consumers, this helped build confidence in the source and safety of the food.
“The QR code makes it easy to know where the vegetables come from. It builds trust in the quality and safety,” said a customer from Dolapara.
A customer at Dhap City Market said, “If the vegetables are truly chemical-free, then the price is reasonable. However, we need proper traceability information. I believe clear traceability details should be provided.”
This feedback points to one of the most important lessons from the pilot: while traceability can strengthen consumer confidence, shoppers still want clearer and more formal assurance about food safety.
The Role of Vendors
Out of about 45 NICE vendors across the two cities, 26 participated in the pilot. That is a 58% take-up rate that shows meaningful early buy-in. The Thursday Bundle model depends heavily on vendors. NICE-supported vendors served as the link between the bundled produce and consumers in local markets.
The bundles were prepared and packaged by an outlet and a network manager, who supplied them to participating vendors for sale. Beyond selling the bundles, vendors had to explain the pricing, quantity, safety features, and traceability information to customers who were still unfamiliar with this concept. While some vendors said preparation became easier as coordination improved, limited manpower, packaging costs, storage constraints, supply delays, and mismatched quantities sometimes affected planning and implementation.
Vendors also noted that demand was stronger in areas where customers had heard about the bundle through basic promotion or word of mouth. These insights show that vendors are central to the success of the model, but they need stronger promotion, clearer trust-building information, and practical support to help the Thursday Bundle grow.
Challenges and Lessons for Scale
The pilot showed early promise, while also highlighting what needs to be strengthened for the model to grow. Limited promotion meant that many consumers were not aware of the bundles in the early weeks, and some customers suggested market posters and other awareness activities to help people know about the offer in advance.
Vendors also observed that demand was stronger in urban areas, while customers outside city centres were more price-sensitive and often prioritised cheaper options over safe produce. On the operational side, inconsistent supply, price fluctuations, limited storage, packaging constraints, and manpower gaps sometimes made it difficult to maintain stable prices, consistent bundle quality, and freshness, especially for perishable vegetables.
These lessons show that the Thursday Bundle is not only a consumer-facing idea; for the model to be sustained, it must also work for vendors, network managers, and other supply chain actors.
Connecting Bundles with Behaviour Change Support
Beyond the market, the Thursday Bundle is also being introduced through other Outcome 3 activities, including smart food tips and communal cooking sessions. During these sessions, community members learn about nutritious, safe, and value chain produce, receive recipes, and are introduced to practical food preparation tips.
After the sessions, mobile vegetable vans provide an opportunity for community members to see and buy the bundles. This connection between behaviour change activities and market access is important. It means that households are not only learning about nutritious foods; they are also being offered a practical way to purchase them.
This approach supports the wider goal of NICE Outcome 3 of creating demand for the consumption and production of nutritious, safe foods for healthy diets.
What comes next
The Thursday Bundle pilot has now provided useful insights into what consumers value, what retailers need, and what conditions are required for the model to grow.
The next step is to strengthen the model by improving promotion, making price and quantity information clearer, exploring lower-cost hygienic packaging, improving supply chain coordination, and providing stronger traceability information. NICE Bangladesh also plans to involve more cohort vendors who did not participate in the initial pilot. Vendors who have already sold the Thursday Bundle will help sensitise other vendors and share their experiences.
Early results show that healthier purchasing behaviour can be encouraged when nutritious foods are easier to choose, trust, and buy. For households in Dinajpur Municipality and Rangpur City, the Thursday Bundle is a practical step toward bringing safe, diverse, and affordable foods closer to everyday meals.