The realities and aspirations of people experiencing food insecurity in Tāmaki Makaurau

Abstract

Given the strong links between food security and wellbeing, addressing the increasing lack of access to adequate, appropriate food is necessary to realise the current Aotearoa New Zealand government's wellbeing-related ambitions. This qualitative survey study engages with the experiences of over 600 food insecure people by analysing open-ended survey responses regarding their experiences of food insecurity and their goals and dreams for the future. Countering neoliberal narratives of the poor as lacking 'ambition', our data suggest that participants have extensive goals and dreams for the future, but systemic income inadequacy severely limits them in achieving their aspirations. Many participants aspire for appropriate and fulfilling employment, financial security, and to secure a good life for their whānau; yet current welfare policy settings undermine their aspirations and are at odds with the Government's own vision of wellbeing, as formalised in the Treasury's Living Standards Framework. This suggests the exclusion of food insecure people from our national shared vision of wellbeing. We conclude by highlighting the value of understanding and including the goals and dreams of those who are food insecure in the intention, design, and delivery of reforms needed to enhance food security in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Auditing the impact of artificial intelligence on the ability to have a good life: using well-being measures as a tool to investigate the views of undergraduate STEM students

“…The ability to have a good life depends on many social parameters such as employment (Crow and Payne 1992 ), social status (Gehl and Ross 2013 ), geographical location (suburbs) (Greenbie 1969 ), food security (Neuwelt-Kearns et al 2021 ), social norms (Hansen 2015 ), physical health, and socioeconomic status (Xu et al 2020 ), caring (Colombo 2014 ), sustainable living (Hansen 2015 ), respecting (Malti et al 2020 ), being respected (Steckermeier and Delhey 2019 ), and power over own one’s life and experience of discrimination (Holmström et al 2017 ). The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a checklist to indicate actions needed to enable more opportunities for a good life for disabled people (Johnson 2013 ; Kakoullis and Johnson 2020 ) and the same is said for children and the UN Convention of the Child (Brusdal and Frønes 2014 ; Kutsar et al 2019 ).…”

Shining a light on food insecurity in Aotearoa New Zealand: Modification of a food security scale for use with individuals who have extreme food security needs

“…We show in related research with the same sample that this food insecurity predicts increased psychological distress and reduced emotional wellbeing (Robinson, 2019). Further, when these participants were asked about the main reasons they are food insecure, the great majority (83%) indicated it was because their incomes were insufficient to meet their living costs (Neuwelt-Kearns et al, 2021).…”