An Ethnographic Study of Meal Programs for Homeless and Under-Housed Individuals in Toronto (original) (raw)
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Nutritional assessment of charitable meal programmes serving homeless people in Toronto
Public Health Nutrition, 2008
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Charitable food distribution as symbolic gesture: An ethnographic study of food bank work in Ontario
Community-based charitable food assistance programs have recently been established in several affluent nations to distribute public and corporate food donations to 'the needy'. In Canada, food banks comprise the primary response to hunger and food insecurity, but problems of unmet food need persist. We conducted an ethnographic study of food bank work in southern Ontario to examine the functioning of these extra-governmental, charitable food assistance programs in relation to problems of unmet need. Our results suggest that the limited, variable and largely uncontrollable supply of food donations shaped the ways in which food assistance was defined and the practices that governed its distribution. Workers framed the food assistance as a supplement or form of acute hunger relief, but generally acknowledged that the food given was insufficient to fully meet the needs of those who sought assistance. In response to supply limitations, workers restricted both the frequency with which individual clients could receive assistance and the amount and selection of food that they received on any one occasion. Food giving was essentially a symbolic gesture, with the distribution of food assistance dissociated from clients' needs and unmet needs rendered invisible. We conclude that, structurally, food banks lack the capacity to respond to the food needs of those who seek assistance. Moreover, the invisibility of unmet need in food banks provides little impetus for either community groups or government to seek solutions to this problem. r
Appetite, 2014
The prevalence of homelessness in the UK is rising, and demand for food aid through charitable meal services has increased. Charitable services make a substantial contribution to the food and nutrient intake of vulnerable people, and thus offer a platform for dietary improvement. This study examined food provision by a large charitable organisation in a major UK city. It had several objectives: Firstly to quantify nutritional composition of breakfast and lunch meals, secondly to understand factors that influence the composition of menus and meals, and thirdly to determine whether, within the context of these influences, improvements to the menu would be possible and whether these would be acceptable to clients. Mixed methods of ethnography, semi-structured interviews, quantitative nutrient analysis, recipe adaptation and taste tests were employed. The research team worked as volunteers in the organisation for a 3-week period and interviews were held with the kitchen staff. Food choi...
A Participatory Study of the Health and Social Impact of a Community Food Centre in Ottawa, Canada
Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, 2020
Food insecurity is a pervasive and persistent issue across Canada, where a growing number of people are accessing food banks. Conventional food banks may offer relief for immediate needs but typically have limited capacity to address longer-term food insecurity. This paper focuses on the Parkdale Food Centre in Ottawa, ON, which provides food assistance alongside a range of programs and initiatives designed to address food insecurity and related needs in its community. This qualitative study aims to examine how participation in the programs at the Parkdale Food Centre influences the physical, mental, and social health of people who access the food centre. Semi-structured interviews and a participatory photovoice project were conducted with people who access the food centre. The results indicate that people who access the food centre perceived a positive influence of the programs on their food, health, and social needs, particularly with respect to improved access to fresh foods, con...
A participatory study of the health and social impact of a food centre in Ottawa, Canada
2020
Food insecurity is a pervasive and persistent issue across Canada, where a growing number of people are accessing food banks. Conventional food banks may offer relief for immediate needs but typically have limited capacity to address longer-term food insecurity. This paper focuses on the Parkdale Food Centre in Ottawa, ON, which provides food assistance alongside a range of programs and initiatives designed to address food insecurity and related needs in its community. This qualitative study aims to examine how participation in the programs at the Parkdale Food Centre influences the physical, mental, and social health of people who access the food centre. Semi-structured interviews and a participatory photovoice project were conducted with people who access the food centre. The results indicate that people who access the food centre perceived a positive influence of the programs on their food, health, and social needs, particularly with respect to improved access to fresh foods, con...
Research Square (Research Square), 2022
Introduction: While considerable research has been conducted on household food insecurity (HFI), little research has examined the effects of food donation programs on users' living conditions. The Pathways study was established to investigate the long-term effects of food donation programs on food insecurity as well as other critical outcomes, such as diet, health, and social support. Herein, we describe the design of the Pathways Study and the participants' characteristics at baseline. Methods: The Pathways study is a prospective cohort study of 1,001 food-aid users in Quebec (Canada). We recruited newly registered users of food donation programs from 106 community-based food-aid organizations that partnered with the study. Baseline data were collected through face-to-face interviews from September 2018 to January 2020, with planned follow-up interviews at 12 and 24 months after enrollment. Household food insecurity, diet, food competencies, food shopping behaviors, perceived food environment, health status, social support and isolation, sociodemographic characteristics, housing conditions, negative life events, and the impacts of COVID-19 were assessed with validated questionnaires. Results: The cohort included 1,001 participants living in rural (n=181), semi-urban (n=250), and urban areas (n= 570). Overall, household food insecurity was reported as severe among 46.2% and moderate in 36.9% of participants. Severe household food insecurity was more prevalent in rural (51.4%) and urban (47.8%) areas compared to semi-urban (39%) areas. Overall, 76.1% of participants reported an annual income below C$20,000. Half (52%) had low education levels (high school or lower), 22.0% lived in singleparent households, and 52.1% lived alone. Most (62.9%) experienced at least one major nancial crisis in the preceding year. Conclusions: Results show that newly registered users of food donation programs often have low-income and severe food insecurity, with major differences across geographical locations. The Pathways study is the rst study designed to follow, over a two-year period, a cohort of newly registered users of food donation programs and to quantify their trajectories of service use. Findings from the Pathways study might help adapt the community response to the strategies used by food-insecure households to feed themselves. Longitudinal studies that follow participants from when they rst start using food donation programs are needed to describe the trajectories of the use of food donation programs (e.g., occasional resource or regular source of food acquisition) and to evaluate their effect on HFI and other related outcomes. Likewise, studies considering the geographical context of food banks and of their users, as well as the type of programs offered by community organizations in addition to food donation programs should be conducted. The Pathways study was designed to address these knowledge gaps. The rst of its kind, the Pathways study was designed to estimate the long-term impact of food donation programs on HFI and other outcomes such as diet, health, and social support among a cohort of newly registered users of food donation programs,. It also aims to identify conditions that might facilitate the transition from food donation to capacity-building programs. The speci c objectives of the Pathways study are to: (1) identify pathways for the use of food security programs and understand the drivers associated with most common pathways; (2) compare pathways of program use among new users in community organizations offering only food donation programs only (FD) and new users of food donation programs in community organizations that also offer food-related capacity-building programs (FD + CBP); and (3) quantify the relationships between pathways of donation program use and food security, diet, mental and physical health, and social integration. This paper presents the design of the Pathways study and the characteristics of participants at baseline, contrasting both the three different areas (rural semiurban and urban) and the Montreal region versus the other three regions participating in the study. Methods The Pathways study is conducted in the province of Québec, Canada. It was developed in close partnership with public health, provincial, and regional organizations (i.e., Food banks Quebec) that contributed to its design and implementation. The Pathways study is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant# omitted for blind review), with additional nancial support from the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services, the Foundation of Greater Montreal, and Mission Inclusion. We received ethical approval from the Research Ethics Board of the Université de Montréal (n. certi cate blinded for peer review).
Status report - FoodReach Toronto: lowering food costs for social agencies and community groups
Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada, 2018
Highlights • The objective of FoodReach is to provide community agencies with regular and predictable access to affordable, fresh food in Toronto. • Food purchased through FoodReach is used to prepare meals and snacks for children, low-income families, people experiencing homelessness and other groups. • These meals are often the only source of healthy food accessed by people within these communities in a day. • In its first year (May 2015 to April 2016), FoodReach worked with more than 50 community organizations to improve their access to affordable produce. partnerships to increase local food security. 4 In Toronto more than 1000 community agencies, 750 school-based Student Nutrition Programs (SNPs) and 900 child care centres serve millions of meals per year to some of the city's most vulnerable groups. Research undertaken by Toronto Public Health revealed that many community organizations face challenges accessing fresh, affordable food. 12 Typically, their food supply chains rely on small budgets, unpredictable donations, little negotiating power when entering contracts with large food service providers, and reliance on volunteers.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________*Correspondingauthor:Email:qsislam@bangladeshi.ca;EuropeanJournalofNutrition&FoodSafety, 2022
Introduction: The provincial and federal governments provided emergency funding to local community organizations for free food support to people affected by COVID-19. The study's goals were to explore the barriers of the people and the organizations while receiving and providing free food support and what further was needed to give the people food support in the priority neighborhood. Methods: Nine representatives of the local community organizations and 15 volunteers participated in the community conversation or the extensive group discussion. They shared their experiences about barriers and what we further needed to provide food support for the priority neighborhood like Taylor Massey. Two note-takers obtained data from the community conversation. This is a qualitative study. It used a thematic approach to analyze the data and interpretation. Results: Information lacking about free food, language barriers, the social stigma associated with free food support, and fear of COVID-19 were the barriers of community people to receiving food support. On the other hand, the community organizations lacked information about who needed real food support, lacked enough transportation support to distribute the food, enough empty
Food intake patterns of homeless youth in Toronto
Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de santé publique
To explain the low nutrient intakes of homeless youth in Toronto by looking at their usual food intake patterns and the food they obtained from charitable programs and their own purchases. Interviews were conducted with 261 homeless youth (149 male, 112 female), recruited from outdoor locations and drop-in centres in downtown Toronto. Drawing on data from two 24-hour dietary intake recalls, youths' usual food intakes were estimated and compared to Canada's Food Guide recommendations. The nutritional quality of youths' food intakes from charitable meal programs and food purchases was compared. The mean usual food intakes for homeless males and females were well below current recommendations for all four food groups and below the usual intakes of adults, 19-30 years, in the general population. On a given day, youths' mean energy intakes were 1962 +/- 1394 kcal for females and 2163 +/- 1542 kcal for males, with more energy coming from "other foods" than any ot...