Food for thought: an ethnographic study of negotiating ill health and food insecurity in a UK foodbank

Garthwaite, K.A.; Collins, P.J.; Bambra, C.

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.03.019

Food for thought: an ethnographic study of negotiating ill health and food insecurity in a UK foodbank

Garthwaite, K.A.; Collins, P.J.; Bambra, C.

Authors

K.A. Garthwaite

P.J. Collins

C. Bambra

Abstract

Emergency foodbanks have become an increasingly prominent and controversial feature of austerity in Europe and the USA. In the UK, foodbanks have been called a ‘public health emergency’. Despite this, there has been no UK research examining the health of foodbank users. Through an ethnographic study, this paper is the first to explore the health and health perceptions of foodbank users via a case study of Stockton-on-Tees in the North East of England, UK during a period of welfare reform and austerity. Participant observation, field notes and interviews with foodbank users and volunteers were conducted over a seventeen month period (November 2013 to March 2015) inside a Trussell Trust foodbank. Foodbank users were almost exclusively of working age, both men and women, with and without dependent children. All were on very low incomes – from welfare benefits or insecure, poorly paid employment. Many had pre-existing health problems which were exacerbated by their poverty and food insecurity. The latter meant although foodbank users were well aware of the importance and constitution of a healthy diet, they were usually unable to achieve this for financial reasons – constantly having to negotiate their food insecurity. More typically they had to access poor quality, readily available, filling, processed foods. Foodbank users are facing the everyday reality of health inequalities at a time of ongoing austerity in the UK.

Citation

Garthwaite, K., Collins, P., & Bambra, C. (2015). Food for thought: an ethnographic study of negotiating ill health and food insecurity in a UK foodbank. Social Science & Medicine, 132, 38-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.03.019

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Mar 6, 2015
Publication Date	May 1, 2015
Deposit Date	Mar 17, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Mar 12, 2017
Journal	Social science and medicine
Print ISSN	0277-9536
Electronic ISSN	0277-9536
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	132
Pages	38-44
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.03.019
Keywords	Austerity, Ethnography, Food bank, Food insecurity, Health inequalities, Welfare reform, UK.
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1435248

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Copyright Statement
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Social Science & Medicine. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Social Science & Medicine, 132, May 2015, 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.03.019.