“I Would Have Never Thought That I Would Be in Such a Predicament”: Voices From Women Experiencing Food Insecurity in Nova Scotia, Canada

Adults’ food skills and use of gardens are not associated with household food insecurity in Canada

“…[12][13][14][15][16]25 Consistent with our observation of less nutrition label use among adults in foodinsecure households, accounts of the priorities that food-insecure parents apply to their food purchasing decisions suggest that price and family food preferences take precedence over nutrition considerations when resources are scarce. 13,14,25 The discrepancy between our results and US program evaluation data showing that improving adults' food skills can reduce their food insecurity (see for example refs.…”

“…Less is known about the importance of adults' food skills and self-provisioning activities in mitigating the effects of limited incomes on household food security, but community cooking and gardening programs and other educational initiatives aimed at strengthening individuals' basic food skills are widely perceived as valuable interventions to improve the food security of low-income households. [8][9][10][11][12] While the resourcefulness and frugality of adults tasked with food shopping in the context of limited resources have been well documented, [12][13][14][15][16] there has been little assessment of the relation between adults' food skills and household food security. The few Canadian studies of programs designed to strengthen the budgeting and cooking skills of at-risk adults suggest that these interventions have limited impact on food insecurity, 8,17 but more structured evaluations of broader-scale, targeted nutrition education initiatives in the US have shown reductions in household food insecurity with improved food shopping and cooking skills (see for example refs.…”

“Is always that sense of wanting … never really being satisfied”: Women’s Quotidian Struggles With Food Insecurity in a Hispanic Community in New Mexico

“…Similar to findings by Williams and colleagues in their study with women in Nova Scotia, 34,36 inability to provide for children was a key component of this shame and was seen to be related to women’s feelings of stress, frustration, sadness, and anger. Ruth said, “It affects you emotionally.…”

“…33 In their participatory action research with women in Nova Scotia, Williams and colleagues 34–36 have demonstrated innovative approaches to conducting research with women experiencing food insecurity (structured dialogue and food costing) and identified unique gendered dimensions of food insecurity that are exacerbated by public policy in what they call “milk insecurity.” 37,38 Hamelin and colleagues 39,40 found multiple domains related to the social implications of food insecurity that influence both individual and family well-being. Rock and colleagues 41,42 investigated the “discomforting” physical and psychological emotions associated with having to eat in a manner outside of the experience of food secure households.…”

Doing Nutrition Differently

“…For example, many food activists and academics have called for a questioning of expertise, and also of the homogenous voices within nutrition science and practice (Rodriguez 2013;Harper 2013). Partly in response to such calls has come the development of peer-based nutrition groups that focus more on storytelling (Williams et al 2012), and that edge us toward more active forms of participation in the production of nutrition knowledge (Alkon 2013). There is certainly much more to do in pursuit of this goal, but the BWHBC model of multivocal authorship is an important directive.…”