Housing, food and dignity: the food worlds of homeless families in emergency accommodation in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Family homeless is an increasing challenge across the western world and no longer confined to marginalized groups. In Ireland, it extends to those who have become homeless because of an economic housing crisis, which has resulted in an unprecedented number of families living in emergency accommodation such as B&Bs and hotels. Homelessness impacts on all aspects of everyday life, not least food and eating. Using the photo-elicitation technique, the study examined how families living in emergency accommodation accessed, stored, cooked, and consumed food, the strategies they used to manage the impact of their food and eating situation, and how the overall situation in regard to food and eating made them feel. Food storage was a constant everyday pressure that impacted on food choice and dignity and constrained choices to the extent that families relied on takeaway meals and convenience foods. Regimented meal times and restricted kitchen access greatly challenged parents’ food provision efforts and negatively influenced children’s and parents’ dietary intake. The importance of space and the micro-contexts where food is procured, prepared, eaten and disposed is highlighted as is the need for homeless service design that supports positive family food practices and dignity.

KEYWORDS:

• Food dignity
• homelessness
• photo-elicitation
• families
• food poverty

Acknowledgements

This article is based on a study commissioned by Focus Ireland. I would like to thank the families for their participation in this study and who generously gave of their time during a difficult phase in their lives. Thanks also to Marita Hennessy for undertaking literature searching and review. This work was presented at the Dublin Gastronomy Symposium, 2018. Feedback received at the presentation has been used to develop this paper. I am grateful also for the valuable feedback provided by the anonymous reviewers which has been used to strengthen this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Michelle Share is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin. She has researched and published on dietary and food issues amongst women dieters, asylum seekers, older people in community settings, and children and young people in school and alternative education and training settings, and homeless families.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Focus Ireland.