A community-based participatory research approach to understanding social eating for food well-being

Abstract

‘Social eating initiatives’ are framed as a specific type of community-based food service that provides opportunities for people to eat together in local spaces using surplus food. These initiatives provide a meal that is fresh, affordable and more environmentally friendly than fast or convenience foods. In this research, we build upon the food well-being model to explore how food consumption is experienced in these community settings and the role of social eating projects in shaping the different dimensions of people’s foodscapes. We adopted a community-based participatory approach and engaged in a series of dialogues with staff volunteers and coordinators at four ‘social eating initiatives’. We also conducted 45 interviews with service users and volunteers at three sites in the Midlands region. The role of community-based food initiatives responding to hunger by utilising surplus food to feed local populations is often conceptualised critically. However, closer attention to the experiences of staff, volunteers and customers at these spaces, reveals them as sites where knowledge and experience of food is being developed with this contributing to a sense of well-being beyond nutrition. Shared food practices and eating together contribute to social capital and are important dimensions of food well-being that are significantly restricted by food insecurity. The ‘food well-being’ model envisages a shift in focus from health, defined as the absence of illness, towards well-being as a positive relationship with food at the individual and societal level. In the concluding remarks of this article, it is suggested that this holistic conception is required to understand the role and function of social eating initiatives.

El papel de los comedores y merenderos sociales en la alimentación de infancias pertenecientes a familias vulnerables durante la pandemia de COVID-19 en la provincia de Mendoza, Argentina

“…Respecto a los significados que la comensalidad barrial tiene para para quienes protagonizan esas experiencias -aspecto que Grignon, recuperado por Jönsson et al 13 denomina la dimensión inmaterial de las comidas compartidas-los resultados del estudio refuerzan que los comedores son espacios de cuidado, de desarrollo de solidaridades y de reconstrucción del tejido social en los barrios 3 . Y si bien durante ASPO Y DISPO restringieron tareas de articulación de problemáticas comunitarias que desplegaban junto a las actividades alimentarias 1,18,21,24 antes de la irrupción de COVID-19, ese tipo de prácticas previas habilitó respuestas de base barrial para enfrentar efectos de la pandemia. De manera similar a lo reportado en favelas de San Pablo, Brasil 3 , los referentes sociales en Mendoza acercaron alimentos a familias aisladas en sus domicilios y mediaron los mensajes de prevención formulados por las autoridades sanitarias.…”