Food insecurity is a growing problem in Canada including Saskatoon. How gender is linked to household food insecurity is largely unexplored. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between gender and food insecurity based on the lived experience of 11 heterosexual couples seeking food assistance or living on social assistance in Saskatoon. This study assessed their perceptions, attitudes and beliefs about food security, household resource management, coping strategies, and food shopping and preparation practices. Data were collected by interviewing 11 couples and ten key informants and analyzed using Giorgi’s phenomenological approach. This study found food decision and grocery shopping were gendered. Female participants were involved more than their partners in decision-making about what food to buy and grocery shopping where. Male participants viewed their partners more knowledgeable about food and shopping as feminine activity. Female participants felt more challenged than their spouses in grocery shopping and food preparation. There were no gender differences in other activities of household food management. Spouses supported each other and shared other household resources to manage food related activities. They held similar views about their food household situation and often agreed with each other about their household resources and the price, quality and type of food to buy. They bought foods that were affordable and nutritious. The food preferences of their family were accommodated where possible. They worked to ensure household food security. Food or money received from the Food Bank, CHEP and family were important in dealing with food insecurity. All participants and key informants agreed that food availability was not an issue but for some participants, affordability, access and time constraints were. Key informants and the participants suggested increasing support for families including more opportunities for income generation, increases in government welfare benefits, more grocery stores, transport assistance, and nutrition knowledge and cooking skill. The findings suggest policies related to gender as well as programs to improve food security in Saskatoon.

This thesis examines the enduring problem of food insecurity in Africa, with a particular focus on Ethiopia and Kenya. It considers food insecurity both in acute terms - the occurrence of famine and chronic terms - famine vulnerability. More specifically it provides a new interpre~tion of the causes of food insecurity in East Africa, with respect to some of the causal factors and viable solutions. It does so by locating the occurrence of famine, and countries vulnerability to it, in the context of the global food system. The global food system is, as yet, an under-examined factor in contemporary famine analysis, particularly in East Africa and this thesis aims to explore it more comprehensively than hitherto. This thesis also makes a substantive contribution to understanding the concept of Food Sovereignty in an African context. Food Sovereignty deserves to be a more significant part of contemporary narratives that at present dominate the political and social dilemmas about food insecurity. However there are serious obstacles such as political relationships, land tenure and the industrial system of agriculture that hinder the development of Food Sovereignty as a viable option. Natural disasters, demographic pressures and ill conceived economic policies are an ongoing part of the story but in essence food insecurity is ultimately political. This thesis concludes that Food Sovereignty should be explored as a political . solution to a political problem.

This study addresses the overarching topic of food insecurity by giving voice to individuals who are dedicating their careers toward combating child food insecurity throughout their communities. Voices are uplifted through the representation of narratives by volunteer coordinators overseeing child feeding programs, which have been established throughout Kentucky as an effort to help alleviate child hunger. This study is guided by London’s theory on career motivation, with the outcomes of this study serving as a pilot for future research centered around individuals working to combat child food insecurity. The narratives collected from this study will be used as a resource for generating public conversation, spreading awareness, and to “tell the story” in regards to child hunger across Kentucky.

Food insecurity is on the rise throughout the United States. Today more than 11.6% of American household’s face food insecurity. Many of these food insecure households reside in the suburbs. Despite these rising rates of food insecurity, the issue of suburban food insecurity has largely gone unnoticed. In this paper, I use Orange County as a case study to investigate how the rise of poverty in the suburbs relates to the issue of suburban food insecurity. Some questions this paper addresses are: What are the driving forces of poverty in the suburbs? What barriers to food security do suburban residents face and how are they different from urban areas? And lastly, what are the next steps to solving suburban food insecurity?

The obesity epidemic is a major public health concern, where the prevalence rates amongst the American children population have more than doubled since the 1980s. Among overweight children, the risk of becoming an overweight or obese adult is 70% higher than children of normal weight, and obese children are more likely to remain obese into adulthood and face a number of morbidities associated with it, including lower quality of life and increased financial burden. In this research, we examined the relationship between household food security and obesity among children and adolescents between the ages of 2-18 years old. We used data from the NHANES 2005-2006 (n= 3,432). Amongst the children aged 2-18 years, 31.21% were determined to be obese or at-risk for obesity. Children aged 2-18 years were 1.27 times more likely to be obese or at-risk when living in a food insecure household after adjusting for race/ethnicity. Adolescents aged 12-18 years were 1.47 times more likely to be obese or at-risk when living in a food insecure household. No significant association was found for young children aged 2-11 years. After adjusting for race/ethnicity and poverty level status, however, the association between food insecurity and obesity was not significant for either age group. Further investigation of other potential confounders could explain the association for both young children and adolescents. There are other factors, like social and societal, that influence the trends of obesity. Future programming could work to ameliorate the conditions of food insecurity and other infrastructure factors.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to examine the association between food insecurity and untreated dental caries among U.S. children and adults and to investigate the effect of participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on dental caries among U.S. adults. METHODS: Our sample was derived from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles 2011-2012 and 2013-2014. Food security was measured as overall food security status (full food secure/ food insecure) and household-level food security (full, marginal, low, and very low). SNAP participation in the past 12 months was self-reported (yes/ no). The main outcome variable was untreated dental caries (none vs. one or more). Descriptive, Bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the relationship among food insecurity, SNAP participation, and untreated caries. RESULTS: Our results suggest that food insecure children were more likely to have untreated caries compared to full food secure counterparts, after controlling for potential confounders (OR: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.11-1.72). On household-level food security, children from marginal and very low food secure households had significantly higher odds of untreated caries compared to children from fully food secure households (OR: 1.48; 95% CI: 1.10-2.01 and OR: 1.59; 95% CI: 1.12-2.26 respectively). Moreover, our findings suggest significant association between overall food security status and dental caries among U.S. adults (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.05-1.74). We also observed a significant association between the severity of household food insecurity and untreated caries among adults after adjusting for confounders (P=0.04). SNAP participants were more likely to have untreated caries compared to non-SNAP participants (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.19-1.87). The interaction of food insecurity and SNAP participation was not significant. However, SNAP participants from all levels of food security had higher prevalence ratio of dental caries compared to non-SNAP participants, regardless of food security status. CONCLUSION: Food insecurity was negatively associated with dental caries among U.S. children and adults. In addition, SNAP participation had adverse association with dental caries among U.S. adults. Further research is needed to more comprehensively understand the impact of food insecurity and food assistance programs on oral health. / 2021-06-16T00:00:00Z

MSc (Med) Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / Abstract not included on cd

In many conflict-ridden countries, food insecurity prevails. However, the relationship between food insecurity and armed conflict onset is a complex one, and scholarly attention has increasingly been directed towards furthering our understanding of its nature. In this study, the proposition is brought forth that the effect of food insecurity on armed conflict onset should be contingent on certain features of the economic, social and political environment. Specifically, it suggests that (i) food insecurity should increase the risk of armed conflict onset by generating deprivation in absolute terms, and (ii) that the risk should be heightened when such insecurity disproportionally affects certain groups in society. The latter point pertains to the level of horizontal inequality – i.e. inequality at the group level –, the presence of which is expected to compound the risk of food insecurity leading to armed conflict onset by adding a relative dimension of deprivation to the absolute. A logistic regression analysis is employed using global data for the years 1961 to 2009. The findings do not support the hypothesized relationship. Rather, although food insecurity does increase the risk of armed conflict in cases where the level of horizontal political inequality is low, it decreases the risk in cases where it is high. This indicates that the impact of food insecurity on the risk of armed conflict indeed is contingent on certain features of the political environment, which calls for conditionality to increasingly be taken into account in future research on the relationship between food insecurity and armed conflict onset.

The provision of free or low cost meals is an integral component of community services working to address problems of poverty and homelessness in Canada. However, there has been little systematic examination of how they function relative to clients’ nutrition needs. The objective of this research was to investigate the scope and nature of meal programs by examining an inventory of charitable food provisioning activities, created between 2010 and 2011, in five Canadian cities. Of 290 agencies offering meal programs, 548000 meals were served every month. However, service scheduling varied throughout the week, and the majority of agencies were reliant on volunteer labour, donated food supplies, and experienced difficulties managing the current demand for food assistance. Findings from this study highlight the strengths and limitations of the current food provisioning system and a need to improve the capacity of agencies to respond to populations experiencing food insecurity in Canada.

The purpose of the study is to provide a descriptive analysis of food insecurity within the adult First Nations population in Manitoba. A bivariate analysis is used to determine strength of relationships between food insecurity and socio-demographic variables as well as self-reported general health and psycho-social health. This research study also includes a gender-based analysis (GBA), which allows for possible food insecurity prevalence differences between women and men The data obtained for this research study is from the second wave of the Manitoba First Nations Regional Longitudinal Health Survey (MFNRLHS, 2002/2003). Select socio-demographic variables as well as self-reported general health status, ‘life balance,’ and elements of psycho-social health, including self-reported health, ‘life balance,’ depression, intense anxiety, stress level, and domestic dispute were included. A P-value of 0.05 was used to identify significant differences. Significant results from this study include elevated food insecurity in Manitoba First Nations (37.2%). The bivariate analysis reveals that food insecurity is marginally associated with age group, with the highest food insecurity among young and middle-aged women; middle-aged men, and those with lone-parent status. Food insecurity is also significantly associated with total household income, the number of incomes per household, as well as employment versus government support over a two-year period. Food insecurity is elevated in both southern (29.4%) and northern (51.4%) regions of the province.