Discomforting comfort foods: stirring the pot on Kraft Dinner ® and social inequality in Canada

This paper contrasts the perceptions of Canadians who are food-secure with the perceptions of Canadians who are food-insecure through the different meanings that they ascribe to a popular food product known as Kraft Dinner ® . Data sources included individual interviews, focus group interviews, and newspaper articles. Our thematic analysis shows that food-secure Canadians tend to associate Kraft Dinner ® with comfort, while food-insecure Canadians tend to associate Kraft Dinner ® with discomfort. These differences in perspective partly stem from the fact that Kraft Dinner ® consumption by food-secure Canadians is voluntary whereas Kraft Dinner ® consumption by food-insecure Canadians frequently is obligatory. These differences are magnified by the fact that food-insecure individuals are frequently obliged to consume Kraft Dinner ® that has been prepared without milk, a fact that is outside the experience of, and unappreciated by, people who are food-secure. The food-secure perspective influences responses to food insecurity, as Kraft Dinner ® is commonly donated by food-secure people to food banks and other food relief projects. Ignorance among food-secure people of what it is like to be food-insecure, we conclude, partly accounts for the perpetuation of local food charity as the dominant response to food insecurity in Canada. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009