Food insecurity amid the COVID-19 pandemic: food charity, government assistance and employment

‘Sustainable’ Rather Than ‘Subsistence’ Food Assistance Solutions to Food Insecurity: South Australian Recipients’ Perspectives on Traditional and Social Enterprise Models

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph15102086 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 15 (10) ◽

pp. 2086 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Sue Booth ◽

Christina Pollard ◽

John Coveney ◽

Ian Goodwin-Smith

Keyword(s):

Social Interaction ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Food Choice ◽

Social Enterprise ◽

Food Assistance ◽

Social Connection ◽

Active Involvement ◽

Enterprise Models ◽

Food Charity

South Australian (SA) food charity recipients’ perspectives were sought on existing services and ideas for improvement of food assistance models to address food insecurity. Seven focus groups were conducted between October and November 2017 with 54 adults. Thematically analysed data revealed five themes: (1) Emotional cost and consequences of seeking food relief; (2) Dissatisfaction with inaccessible services and inappropriate food; (3) Returning the favour—a desire for reciprocity; (4) Desiring help beyond food; and, (5) “It’s a social thing”, the desire for social interaction and connection. Findings revealed that some aspects of the SA food assistance services were disempowering for recipients. Recipients desired more empowering forms of food assistance that humanise their experience and shift the locus of control and place power back into their hands. Some traditional models, such as provision of supermarket vouchers, empower individuals by fostering autonomy and enabling food choice in socially acceptable ways. Improvement in the quality of existing food assistance models, should focus on recipient informed models which re-dress existing power relations. Services which are more strongly aligned with typical features of social enterprise models were generally favoured over traditional models. Services which are recipient-centred, strive to empower recipients and provide opportunities for active involvement, social connection and broader support were preferred.

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A community-based participatory research approach to understanding social eating for food well-being

Emerald Open Research ◽

10.35241/emeraldopenres.14066.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 11

Author(s):

Nadina R Luca ◽

Marsha Smith ◽

Sally Hibbert

Keyword(s):

Food Insecurity ◽

Food Service ◽

Community Based Participatory Research ◽

Well Being ◽

Research Approach ◽

Community Based ◽

Social Eating ◽

The Individual ◽

Food Charity

‘Social eating initiatives’ are a specific type of community-based food service that provides opportunities for people to eat together in local spaces using surplus food. These initiatives provide a meal that is fresh, affordable and more environmentally friendly than fast or convenience foods. In this research, we build upon the food well-being model to explore how food consumption is experienced in these community settings and the role of social eating projects in shaping the different dimensions of people’s foodscapes. We adopted a community-based participatory approach and engaged in a series of dialogues with staff volunteers and coordinators at four ‘social eating initiatives’. We also conducted 45 interviews with service users and volunteers at three sites in the Midlands region. The role of community-based food initiatives responding to hunger by utilising surplus food to feed local populations is often conceptualised critically. The conjoining of food insecurity and surplus food appears to instrumentally feed customers and reduce food wastage, but in ways that are stigmatising, and which position customers as passive recipients of food charity. However, closer attention to the experiences of staff, volunteers and customers at these spaces, reveals them as sites where knowledge and experience of food is being developed with this contributing to a sense of well-being beyond nutrition. Shared food practices and eating together contribute to social capital and are important dimensions of food well-being that are significantly restricted by food insecurity. The ‘food well-being’ model envisages a shift in focus from health, defined as the absence of illness, towards well-being as a positive relationship with food at the individual and societal level. In the concluding remarks of this article, it is suggested that this holistic conception is required to understand the role and function of social eating initiatives.

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Long-Term Food Insecurity, Hunger and Risky Food Acquisition Practices: A Cross-Sectional Study of Food Charity Recipients in an Australian Capital City

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16152749 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (15) ◽

pp. 2749 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Pollard ◽

Booth ◽

Jancey ◽

Mackintosh ◽

Pulker ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Insecurity ◽

Weight Status ◽

Social Protection ◽

Social Assistance ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Capital City ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Food Acquisition ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Food Charity

Inadequate social protection, stagnant wages, unemployment, and homelessness are associated with Australian household food insecurity. Little is known about the recipients of food charity and whether their needs are being met. This cross-sectional study of 101 food charity recipients in Perth, Western Australia, measured food security, weight status, sociodemographic characteristics and food acquisition practices. Seventy-nine percent were male, aged 21–79 years, 90% were unemployed, 87% received social assistance payments, and 38% were homeless. Ninety-one percent were food insecure, 80% with hunger, and 56% had gone a day or more without eating in the previous week. Fifty-seven percent had used food charity for ≥1 year, and, of those, 7.5 years was the mode. Charitable services were the main food source in the previous week, however 76% used multiple sources. Begging for money for food (36%), begging for food (32%), stealing food or beverages (34%), and taking food from bins (28%) was commonplace. The omnipresence and chronicity of food insecurity, reliance on social security payments, and risky food acquisition suggest that both the social protection and charitable food systems are failing. Urgent reforms are needed to address the determinants of food insecurity (e.g., increased social assistance payments, employment and housing support) and the adequacy, appropriateness and effectiveness of food charity.

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Hunger, Food Charity and Social Policy – Challenges Faced by the Emerging Evidence Base

Social Policy and Society ◽

10.1017/s1474746415000172 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 497-506 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Hannah Lambie-Mumford ◽

Elizabeth Dowler

Keyword(s):

Social Policy ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Household Food Insecurity ◽

Household Level ◽

Household Food ◽

Food Charity

This review builds on issues raised in the themed section relating to household level food insecurity, and the food charity response specifically. It looks at key elements in the development of this body of work and at some of the evidence gaps which remain. In particular, it engages with literature on determinants of household food insecurity with relevance to social policy (for example sufficiency of income), and on research which has examined charitable food responses through the lens of food insecurity. The review is necessarily limited in scope and therefore does not cover other elements of household food insecurity and food charity, including research on nutrition or food skills, or work on food charity operation, food sourcing and reach, for example.

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Hunger and charitable emergency food provision in the UK and beyond

Hungry Britain ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447328285.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Hannah Lambie-Mumford

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Household Food Insecurity ◽

Policy Context ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Household Food ◽

Food Provision ◽

The Uk ◽

Food Charity

Chapter 2 discusses in more detail the rise of food charity in the United Kingdom. It provides international, historical and policy context to this rise as well as an exploration of current knowledge relating to household food insecurity in the UK.

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