When Fiona first asked me to speak at the recent Let’s Talk about Community Food event in Aberdeen, I decided to share some personal reflections about what I’ve learnt about the central place and role of food in our lives, and what it means to one’s health and wellbeing when people can’t afford to eat the food they need and want to look after yourself and your family. I decided to do this by considering this question through both the lenses of my research work that’s been focused the often-hidden hard work of people’s every day coping with food insecurity in Scotland, but also through lens of my personal life as a wife, mother and human being. For despite knowing (as a former nurse) the central importance of food to our physical wellbeing, in terms of the body’s need for calories and nutrients, it’s also clear to me that the need for food is beyond necessity in relation to what it means to be human and a functioning part society. For food fundamentally defines who we are, how we judge ourselves as parents and, is instrumental to the quality of our relationships with our family members, friends and our communities.
It's been a bone of contention for me that this fact seems so little recognised and poorly understood in public health and social policy terms over the decades, that when people can’t guarantee access to food due to cost and other constraints, or experience anxiety about being able to afford food in the future, makes a huge impact on their sense of being able to participate in society in socially acceptable ways, and how that ability to provide food or engage in food-based social activities can either promote or undermine people’s mental well-being.
For I’m very conscious from my work, that if I had to constantly weigh up the costs of producing or participating in occasions that involve inviting people round for food and snacks, or consider I could afford to attend a social gatherings where social norm tells me to take a food or drink contribution, that my life would look and feel very different, and not in a good way!
That certainty of food access and having the luxury of true personal choice about what I provide and when I can provide food for others, is something that I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to take for granted throughout my whole adult life. But I know this is far removed from the experiences of many people in this country, and that the burden of food-related anxiety and the negative outcomes linked to that anxiety falls mainly on poor women and poor households with children in the UK. Many international researchers have also established that food insecurity stops people from eating and feeding their families in ways that meet societal expectations, and that this exacerbates stress, feelings of deprivation, embarrassment and social exclusion. For example, research indicates (mine and others) that low-income women are particularity vulnerable to being embarrassed at not being able to afford to participate in social life involving food, negatively impacting as it does on their social connections, and can lead to them withdrawing and isolating themselves from their friends and family.
It’s the drip, drip effect this chronic and barely perceptible level of food insecurity, that many won’t even see as a problem or regard as a sign of food insecurity, including by those so affected, that Valerie Tarasuk highlighted in 2001 is the more common, under recognised but as negatively toxic to health in high income country populations, as the less common, periodic episodes of more obvious or severe forms of food insecurity.
This brings me to the other main point I covered in my talk, i.e. about the importance of one’s ability to provide food for family and friends in socially acceptable ways, by caregivers (largely women); as something can either promote, or, undermine their mental well-being. For according to our social norms, as caregivers and food providers, women are even more vulnerable to the mentally distressing experiences of stigma and shame than other population groups, when food insecurity is a constant life companion. I’ve also learned over the years this ‘food provisioning’ shame and stigma is something that low-income women are particularly vulnerable to as it further exacerbates the social judgement they experience as poor mothers of children, especially so when it comes to their food 'choices'. Research indicates that women who lack food choice are also highly aware of their social position, because of their inability to access sufficient food in socially acceptable ways which profoundly impacts their mental health and wellbeing. This results in social exclusion, depression, mental illness, feelings of inferiority and shame, and negative self-judgment about their ability to be a ‘good mother’.
But the unenviable position low-income mothers face, is even more starkly obvious when you think about the infant feeding ‘choices’ of those mothers who are living with food insecurity constrained by multiple factors, including the lack of affordability of infant formula or a basic nutritious diet necessary for successful breastfeeding. Another internationally renowned Canadian food insecurity researcher, Lesley Frank, argues that weak economic protections, including inadequate income assistance and maternal and child benefits, create the conditions that means maternal and infant food insecurity exists in high-income countries which mine and others research past and current, indicates is the primary cause of food insecurity in this group in Scotland too. It is unimaginable to think how awful it must feel to not be able to feed one’s baby as you would like. This is a moral and public health injustice that should be utterly intolerable in today’s world.
I hoped my thoughts and arguments that food is beyond necessity and a core facet of our human dignity, were helpful to last week’s discussion and gave some food for thought in conversations about the role of food in communities. By the nods of approval I noted from the podium, and the kind words of encouragement and support I received in person after my talk, it certainly seemed strike a chord with the audience.
A huge thank you to Professor of Public Health Flora Douglas for speaking at the Let's Talk Community Food event. For more information about the event you can read our blog post and report here.
