Utamu wa Afrika (the sweet taste of Africa): The vegetable garden as part of resettled African refugees' food environment

Abstract

Aim:To examine the role of gardening as a component of resettled African refugees' food environment. Methods: This was a qualitative study that collected data using in-depth interviews from 13 gardeners who were purposively sampled to include those participating in community and home gardens. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis was used to identify themes in the data. Results: Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed three emerging themes: food provision (access, availability and affordability), enhanced wellbeing (mental and physical) and barriers encountered in the food environment (limited knowledge on crop seasonality, size of garden and cost of manure). By having access to a vegetable garden, participants were able to access healthy foods and utilise familiar and culturally acceptable foods. Conclusions: Through gardening, the resettled refugees' traditional foods are not only made available but easily accessible at little or no cost ensuring households are able to make healthy food choices. The pillars of food security-food availability, access, utilisation and stability-are enhanced through gardening, making community and home gardens an important component of the resettled refugees' food environment.

Gardener Well-Being along Social and Biophysical Landscape Gradients

“…This is evident in the multifaceted ways in which gardeners perceive well-being improvement through their survey responses. Similar to community garden literature in other regions, the responses especially illuminate how these green spaces are important for social relations by facilitating interactions among family and friends [33,58], cultural heritage values by growing culturally significant food plants [59], and educational values by providing a space to share and teach agricultural knowledge [26,60].…”

Achieving the four dimensions of food security for resettled refugees in Australia: A systematic review

“…To acquire substantial and reliable data, it is important to understand current obstacles to researching refugee communities. Working with refugees raises many ethical concerns around maintaining cultural and social sensitivities . Refugees may have undergone several ordeals, trauma and a perilous journey resulting in physical or psychological violation before reaching Australia .…”

“…Therefore, many individuals make unsuitable research participants or cannot be contacted directly due to their highly vulnerable status . In addition, refugee communities can be mobile and socially invisible, organised into specific social structures that can be hard to reach and hesitant with outsiders . The geographical backgrounds of refugee communities are highly diverse, presenting further challenges in terms of cultural and language barriers for researchers.…”

“…• Adopted a weekly shopping schedule (vs daily) due to difficulties in accessing shopping facilities, transport and increased demands from new lifestyle 20 • Transportation difficulties • Not knowing how to use public transport and how to get to food outlets 21 • Long distances to travel >20 km in some instances 23 but roughly equal for traditional and non-traditional foods 25 • Limited personal transport, that is, private car, 23,25 walking main option 6 • Meant that groceries had to be carried long distances and problems with accessing preferred and cheaper outlets 6 • Limited budgeting skills 21 • Low finances/income, priority to cover household expenses 22,23,25 • Lack of or limited social support 6,22 Food utilisation • Limited household skills, 21 including knowledge on how to prepare foods, 23 resulting in ready-made foods being consumed 25 • Insufficient cooking facilities, 23 preparation and storage 6 • Unfamiliar with most Australian foods, 23 concerns around maintaining cultural and social sensitivities. 29 Refugees may have undergone several ordeals, trauma and a perilous journey resulting in physical or psychological violation before reaching Australia. 20 This may be compounded by health complications, poverty and the stress of settling in a new country.…”

“…23 In addition, refugee communities can be mobile and socially invisible, organised into specific social structures that can be hard to reach and hesitant with outsiders. 29 The geographical backgrounds of refugee communities are highly diverse, presenting further challenges in terms of cultural and language barriers for researchers. Often, contact with refugee communities and individuals can only be made through gatekeeper organisations; this can hinder the involvement of members of the community who are marginalised or less socially active and create concerns of gatekeeper bias or possible coercion.…”