Food insecurity as experienced by New Zealand women and their children

ABSTRACT

Food insecurity, defined as uncertainty in reliably accessing adequate quantities of nutritious food, is an issue for many families and children, including in New Zealand. Drawing on the experiences of mothers, this study explored the nature, causes and impact of food insecurity for their families. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews conducted with six female sole-parents were complemented with food insecurity data from the NZ Health Survey and Youth2000 surveys. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and emergent themes analysed. The major driver of food insecurity was low income relative to essential household outgoings. Coping strategies employed invariably involved reducing the quantity and quality of food consumed. Negative impacts of food insecurity included significant stress, neglect of personal needs and missing meals in favour of children. Concerns expressed for children included reduced provision of nutritious food and constrained social and recreational opportunities. Participants described the daily struggle of feeding their household despite personal sacrifices, a range of coping strategies and community support. Quantitative data showed persistent high prevalence of household food insecurity with inequity by ethnicity and disability status. Findings highlight food insecurity as an ongoing public health issue for which urgent action is required to reduce its damaging impacts on families and children.

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• food security
• mothers
• children
• nutrition
• sole-parents
• food poverty

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Phyllis Paykel Memorial Scholarship, the support of the New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service, staff from the social support agency for their engagement in the research process, and the women who shared their stories.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Otago Phyllis Paykel Memorial Scholarship.