Food Insecurity and Provisioning: Chronic Challenges Faced by Families Living in Poverty on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation

Food provisioning strategies, food insecurity, and stress in an economically vulnerable community: the Northern Cheyenne case

“…For example, studies of women's health and mental health show that both are adversely affected by food insecurity (Siefert et al 2004;Walker et al 1994) while other research confirms the relationship of food insufficiency to depression and other poor health outcomes (Wu and Schimmele 2005;Vozoris and Tarasuk 2003;Tarasuk and Maclean 1990). Adding to recent research on American Indian populations (Bliss 2004;Pickering 2000;Ward and Whiting 2006;Whiting et al 2005), our recent analyses (Whiting and Ward 2007) support Wu and Schimmele's (2005) findings that food insufficiency is an important independent source of stress in low-income, minority populations. Although our study of an American Indian reservation population used a broader measure of stress related to the experience of life events and changes, we found that food insecurity-a chronic source of strainin both households with and without children is a significant predictor of stress levels.…”

“…Other research on American Indians has examined access to such food assistance programs as the Food Distribution program and Food Stamps. Brown and Cornell (2001), Gundersen (2006) and Whiting and Ward (2007) found not only that food insecurity remains high among American Indians, but also access to food assistance varies with the degree of tribal control over food assistance programs. Importantly for this discussion, their research indicates that tribal control over food assistance programs was likely to improve community members' access to food assistance.…”

“…Recent studies of food insecurity among the Northern Cheyenne reservation (Davis et al 1999;Hiwalker et al 2000;Hiwalker et al 2002;Ward et al 2003) report that more than two-thirds of reservation residents experience food insecurity, and about 35% experience food insecurity with hunger. Detailed analysis of food security on the reservation is reported elsewhere (Ward and Whiting 2006;Whiting and Ward 2007). These studies found that food insecurity was a significant factor in the high levels of nutritional risk and poor nutritional health.…”

“…Consequently, stress related to food shortages was not only a chronic strain, but also a daily hassle involving role strain. Ethnographic data showed that sources of stress related to food shortages included barriers to obtaining food assistance (Ward et al 2003;Ward and Whiting 2006;Whiting and Ward 2007). One barrier involved the complexity of application to the Food Stamps Program.…”

“…This paper will present new analyses, which clarify the nature of actual food provisioning strategies, food insecurity, and stress among residents of the Northern Cheyenne reservation community of southeastern Montana. This community is a particularly relevant setting for a case study because nearly 40% of Northern Cheyenne households have incomes below the poverty level (US Census 2000), and nearly 70% experience some form of food insecurity (Whiting and Ward 2007;Hiwalker et al 2000). The analyses presented will assess the relative effects of background characteristics, food insecurity, and use of actual food acquisition strategies on stress levels among reservation residents.…”