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

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

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Garthwaite, K.A. & Collins, P.J. & Bambra, C., 2015. "Food for thought: An ethnographic study of negotiating ill health and food insecurity in a UK foodbank," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 38-44.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:132:y:2015:i:c:p:38-44
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.03.019
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    3. Margo Barker & Jean Russell, 2020. "Feeding the food insecure in Britain: learning from the 2020 COVID-19 crisis," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(4), pages 865-870, August.
    4. Aleksey F. ROGACHEV & Anna V. SHOKHNEKH & Tamara I.MAZAEVA, 2016. "Manufacturing And Consumption Of Agricultural Products As A Tool Of Food Security Management In Russia," Revista Galega de Economía, University of Santiago de Compostela. Faculty of Economics and Business., vol. 25(2), pages 87-94.
    5. Thompson, C. & Smith, D. & Cummins, S., 2018. "Understanding the health and wellbeing challenges of the food banking system: A qualitative study of food bank users, providers and referrers in London," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 95-101.
    6. Emma Beacom & Sinéad Furey & Lynsey Hollywood & Paul Humphreys, 2021. "Conceptualising household food insecurity in Northern Ireland: risk factors, implications for society and the economy, and recommendations for business and policy response," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(5), pages 1-22, May.
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    9. Andrew Williams & Paul Cloke & Jon May & Mark Goodwin, 2016. "Contested space: The contradictory political dynamics of food banking in the UK," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(11), pages 2291-2316, November.
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