Elsevier

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 54, Issue 1, January 2002, Pages 119-132
Social Science & Medicine

Characterization of household food insecurity in Québec: food and feelings

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(01)00013-2Get rights and content

Abstract

This study was undertaken to understand food insecurity from the perspective of households who experienced it. The results of group interviews and personal interviews with 98 low-income households from urban and rural areas in and around Québec City, Canada, elicited the meaning of “enough food” for the households and the range of manifestations of food insecurity. Two classes of manifestations characterized the experience of food insecurity: (1) its core characteristics: a lack of food encompassing the shortage of food, the unsuitability of both food and diet and a preoccupation with continuity in access to enough food; and a lack of control of households over their food situation; and (2) a related set of potential reactions: socio-familial perturbations, hunger and physical impairment, and psychological suffering. The results substantiate the existence of food insecurity among Québecers and confirm that the nature of this experience is consistent with many of the core components identified in upstate New York. This study underlines the monotony of the diet, describes the feeling of alienation, differentiates between a lack of food and the reactions that it engenders, and emphasizes the dynamic nature of the experience.

Introduction

The right to food is one of the most basic human rights (Anon, 1948). Yet it is often compromised even in North America, and the Province of Québec, Canada, is no exception. Though no direct measure of household food insecurity exists in Québec, many studies allude to its existence and raise the issue of its apparent chronicity in an environment where food is widely available (Institut de la statistique du Québec, 2000; Jacobs Starkey, Kuhnlein, & Gray-Donald, 1998; Montreal Harvest, 1996; Rouffignat, Racine, & Côté, 1996). Following a line of inquiry developed at Cornell University (Radimer, Olson, Greene, Campbell, & Habicht, 1992), the purpose of this study was to understand how household food insecurity manifests itself, from the perspective of people in low-income households who had experienced it in a broad range of situations. It is part of a wider study on the nature of the experience in Québec as well as its contributing factors, the aim of which is to be able, eventually, to measure the phenomenon directly and work towards its prevention.

According to the definition offered by the American Society for Nutritional Sciences: “food insecurity exists whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways is limited or uncertain”. Food security implies that all people, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life “without resorting, e.g. to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing and other coping strategies” (Anderson, 1990). In 1996, a broad consensus was reached around a similar definition at the World Food Summit: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (Anon, 1998).

Section snippets

Population and sample

Details of the methods are presented elsewhere (Hamelin, Beaudry, & Habicht, 1998). Essentially, a purposive and progressive sample using pre-defined criteria was used in a population of French-speaking single- and two-parent households from urban and rural areas in and around Québec City. The sample was restricted to those with a basic income equal to or lower than 130% of low-income cut-offs as established by Statistics Canada (1996), having dependent children and where age of the respondent

Results

The majority of the 98 respondents were women (85%) and nearly half were single parent households (48%), lived in an urban area (50%), were tenants (48%) and had less than grade 10 education (43%). Over 60% had a household income at or below 70% of the low-income cut-offs (67%), were unemployed (62%) and had resorted to food aid in the past year (65%). Seventy-seven (79%) were found to be food insecure by the criterion measure and 79 (81%) by the Radimer/Cornell Measure (κ 0.88).

The content

Discussion

In this paper, we documented both people's expectations regarding sufficiency of food (summarized in Table 1) and manifestations of household food insecurity (summarized in Table 4). To our knowledge, this is the first time that people's expectations have been described. They are definitely reasonable by any standard. Their elements can be grouped into those of a more quantitative nature related to consumption for survival, those of a more qualitative nature related to adequacy for self-respect

Author's note

The research reported here formed a part of A.-M. Hamelin's doctoral thesis submitted to Université Laval in December 1999, funded by the Fondation de l’Université Laval and supervised by M. Beaudry and J.P. Habicht.

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