‘Around four million children are growing up in poverty in the UK. That’s a shocking failure in one of the richest countries in the world.’
In Conversation with: Dr Rebecca O’Connell
Earlier this month writer and performer of The Food Bank Show Sam Rees was lucky enough to chat to Dr Rebecca O’Connell, Professor of Food, Families and Society at the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care (CRIPACC), University of Hertfordshire. He asked her about her research, her experience on-the-ground, and what solutions there may be to food poverty in the long term.
As part of the creation of The Food Bank Show, I spoke to a number of academics from different disciplines, including yourself! Could you start by explaining a little about your area of study and research?
My research examines the political, social, cultural and economic determinants shaping what children and families eat, and the part food plays in their everyday lives. I have a particular interest and expertise in food inequalities and in understanding and informing policies and practices that impact the diets and lives of children, families and communities who are marginalised. I’m interested in the ‘close up’ view, that is people’s experiences, and also the ‘long distance’ view or ‘bigger picture’ that shapes those experiences. Because of this, I work with other researchers, and with people who are ‘experts by experience’.
The topics we have focussed on in our research include how families manage food in the context of paid work, parents’ and children’s experiences of food insecurity, and children’s food in institutions like schools and hospitals. I care deeply about food and social justice, and doing research that informs public and policy debates, so I am always keen to collaborate with people like you, and with organisations concerned with improving social policies to enhance children’s and families’ diets and lives. In the past we have collaborated with the Child Poverty Action Group, and we are currently working with the charity School Food Matters on a project to make school food provision more inclusive and accessible to children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Your work has focused on the impact food insecurity has had on children and families, what are some key takeaways from this research?
Having dignified access to nutritious food that meets cultural norms is a basic aspect of what it means to be human, and is a human right. Generally, in a capitalist, urbanised country like ours, people access food from shops, and when they can’t access nutritious food, it is usually because they can’t afford it, or get to places where it is affordable. Families are in low-income for many reasons, including low-paid work, insufficient hours, disabilities and health conditions of parents and children, caring responsibilities and lack of appropriate employment and affordable childcare. On top of this, are the high costs of housing and other necessities, and a lack of government investment in public transport that can make travelling long distances to work and shops unaffordable. But despite these structural causes and constraints, in our neo-liberal society, people are held responsible for their poverty and made to feel ashamed. This sense of shame compounds experiences of exclusion and deprivation and can stop people asking for help when they need it.
Children and young people growing up on low-incomes and in inadequate housing are going without sufficient nutritious food, and cannot afford to have friends over for tea, yet there is a lack of investment in public or ‘third’ places where they could meet and socialise with friends. Like adults, children and young people have ‘agency’ and have ways around this: they hide their poverty, make excuses, pool resources and share food and drink. But the impacts of poverty on their diets, mental and physical health and social lives are deep and long lasting. Around four million children are growing up in poverty in the UK. That’s a shocking failure in one of the richest countries in the world.
Despite being such a complex issue, there are some concrete policies that could at least mitigate food poverty. What changes do you think need to be implemented to make a real difference in tackling the issue?
Based on our research, we make three key recommendations:
1. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) includes the Right to Food: ‘when every man, woman or child, alone or in community with others have physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or the means for its procurement’. Whilst the UK has ratified the Covenant, it needs to demonstrate how its national laws respect, reflect and enforce its obligations.
2. The Government should use budget standards research to ensure both wages and benefits enable families to afford diets that meet their needs for health and social participation.
3. Nutritious free school meals should be provided for all children in compulsory education.
So much of The Food Bank Show revolves around one-on-one encounters with people. Your research has also brought you into contact with real-life ‘case studies’. What impact did these encounters have on your thinking?
The research we carried out in the UK [...] really shone a light on how deeply unequal Britain is. The UK research included children and young people and their parents in inner London and in a coastal area of the South East. Both of these areas were deprived and also undergoing gentrification, with a growing ‘creative’ middle class and proliferation of trendy cafes and restaurants. Some children welcomed these changes, for example in the coastal area, one teenage girl talked about the town ‘coming out of the shadows’. But other young people felt marginalised in their neighbourhoods, and at school. Those who could not afford school meals and did not qualify for lunches due to the eligibility criteria, said they felt ‘left out of all the fun stuff that happens’. One boy told us he hid in the library at lunchtime to avoid having to watch others eat; another said his friends went out at lunchtime to buy paninis, but he just went home to look in the fridge, where there was rarely any food, since his mother was made redundant.
When we asked children and young people who was responsible for ensuring they could eat properly, they said this was primarily parents’ role, but they also said that when parents could not meet this obligation the government and schools should step in. It seemed obvious to them, and to me, that we all need help at points in our lives, and that is the point of the welfare safety net. But since the beginning of so-called ‘austerity’ in around 2010, the welfare state and our expectations of it have been greatly reduced. This is combined with a persistent myth of ‘them and us’, that worryingly seems to be becoming more racialised, and more dangerous, in recent years. We all lose out from social inequality; addressing this has to be a priority for the new government.
It feels more important now than ever that we focus efforts on building social solidarity. Food has an important role to play in this, given its fundamental social functions, but food charity is not the answer. Giving wasted food to surplus people, as the sociologist Graham Riches puts it, only serves to further marginalise those who are already excluded from mainstream society. Organisations like Nourish Scotland and the Independent Food Aid Network are leading the way in calling for dignity to be at the heart of our response to household food insecurity, including the prioritisation of ‘cash first’ approaches that enable people to feed their families in ways that are customary in a society like ours.
Given that children spend so much of their time in school, it also seems obvious that a free, nutritious meal should be provided as a routine part of the school day. But some children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, who are more likely than those without to qualify for means-tested school meals, are currently missing out because school food provision does not meet their needs, so school meals must be provided in a way that is inclusive. This said, it’s important to remember that school meals alone are not a ‘magic bullet’. The government needs to invest in household resources, through adequate wages and benefits, as well as collective resources, like school meals, to ensure all children and families can eat and live well.
Rebecca O’Connell is Professor of Food, Families and Society at the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care (CRIPACC), University of Hertfordshire and a Visiting Professor at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education. Since 2019 she has been a trustee, and is currently Chair of Trustees, of the charity School Food Matters.
The Food Bank Show is on at ours from Tue 4 Nov - Sat 8 Nov at 7pm (3pm matinees on Saturday).
