Hunger and nutritional poverty in Germany: quantitative and qualitative empirical insights

Abstract

Despite increasing social inequality, hunger and nutritional poverty are not regarded as phenomena of German reality; Germany's debate on eating patterns is largely dominated by the issue of obesity. The article challenges this view and shows by means of empirical approaches that hunger and nutritional poverty tend to be underestimated in a supposedly affluent society. Due to a lack of appropriate food research in Germany, our study gives quantitative evidence drawn from a combination of studies to show that there is nutritional poverty in Germany, and that social welfare recipients are widely excluded from eating out, arguably an essential form of social and cultural participation. Furthermore, we provide insights, based on a qualitative longitudinal study, into day-to-day coping practices in response to food shortage. As the empirical results show, physiological hunger and hunger for social inclusion by eating out are a reality in contemporary German society. The predominant responses of the German political and social welfare system, however, can be characterised by delegation and denial of the problem and by a tendency to stigmatise the poor.

Keywords:

• hunger
• nutritional poverty
• food poverty
• alimentary participation

Notes

Notes

1. National Food Survey (NFS).

2. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

3. The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) is a wide-ranging representative longitudinal study of private households, see: http://www.diw.de/soep.

4. These figures do not yet include those without households, i.e. the estimated 300,000 homeless people in Germany (Die Zeit, 5.3.2009), and little is known about their diet (Kutsch 1995).

5. The second book of the German Social Code (SGB II) came into effect on 1 January 2005. It combined former unemployment benefit and social welfare to form a uniform basic income support scheme for those capable of work but in need of support (currently, 364 Euros plus housing costs a month). Together with benefits that ensure a basic standard of living, this support scheme also aims at retaining, restoring or improving the employability of those requiring support.

6. The Panel Study ‘Labour Market and Social Security’ is an annual household survey which is conducted by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), see: http://fdz.iab.de/en/FDZ_Individual_Data/PASS.aspx.

7. All quotations originally in German have been translated by the authors.

8. In accord with the cited literature and data, we define eating out as eating in restaurants, pubs and take-away facilities of all kinds but not eating in the homes of friends and family.

9. Two mutually reinforcing although seemingly contradictory trends set the increasingly rapid pace of change: the pluralisation of gastronomic choice and the standardisation of gastronomic services (Prahl and Setzwein 1999, pp. 58–61). Despite these changes and although there seems to be a shift from collective to individualistic moral patterns on eating (Barlösius 2004), the motives for going to restaurants have barely changed over the course of time: then and now the point is ultimately the simultaneous satisfaction of physical and social needs (Mennell 2003).

10. Due to the lack of a consistent set of data, the variety of methodological heterogeneous surveys we mention to support our point do not provide an overall standardised cost for their calculations.

11. The project is part of the evaluation of Social Code II by the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales). It is executed by the Institute for Employment Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Nuremberg) in collaboration with the Hamburg Institute for Social Research (Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung; Hamburg) and the Institute for Social Science Research Munich (Institut für Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung e.V.; Munich).