Measuring food poverty in Ireland: The importance of including exclusion

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Abstract

Food poverty is multi-faceted. While it is certainly about having enough, nutritious food, it is also about the cultural acceptability of diet and the ability to participate in customary activities associated with food. Within the Irish Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC), there are deprivation indicators that make it possible to monitor many aspects of food poverty – nutritional adequacy, absolute deprivation, cultural acceptability and social inclusion. However, within the composite official food poverty indicator, only nutritional deficiency, absolute and cultural deprivation are included. Those households experiencing only social exclusion vis-a-vis food are classified as non-food poor households. This paper analyses this group of households using Irish Survey of Income and Living Conditions data for 2015. These households – households who are not officially classified as food poor, but who cannot afford to entertain family or friends with food and/or drink once a month – are much more likely than non-food poor households to be experiencing multiple deprivations, to be unable to afford many household amenities, and, if employed, to be employed in jobs often associated with the working poor.

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Development of indicators to assess hunger.

T Olson, C Ryan Campbell, K L Radimer (1990)

Despite widespread concern about hunger in America, efforts to monitor and assess the extent of hunger have been hampered by lack of consensus on an appropriate meaning for the term hunger and by the lack of valid indicators to assess it. The first phase of the research used qualitative methods to derive a socially-appropriate definition of hunger. Thirty-two women in Upstate New York were interviewed regarding their experience with food problems and hunger. The interviews were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Results indicated that women had a narrow and a broad concept of hunger. The narrow concept focused on going without food for a specified period of time and the physical sensation of hunger. The broad one included two dimensions: household and individual hunger. Each had quantitative, qualitative, psychological, and social components. The second phase of the research used survey methodology to examine the validity and reliability of items designed to measure the conceptual definition of hunger. The survey was administered to 189 women in Upstate New York who participated in programs designed for low-income households or households in need of food. The second phase confirmed the conceptualization of hunger developed in the first phase. A subset of valid and reliable items that represented each of the major dimensions and components of hunger was identified as being useful for monitoring and assessing hunger.

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Rights-based approaches to addressing food poverty and food insecurity in Ireland and UK.

Elizabeth Dowler, Deirdre O’Connor (2012)

Food poverty is an important contributing factor to health inequalities in industrialised countries; it refers to the inability to acquire or eat an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways (or the uncertainty of being able to do so). Synonymous with household food insecurity, the issue needs to be located within a social justice framework. Recognising the clear interdependence between the right to food and the right to health, this paper explores how international human rights obligations could inform approaches to addressing food poverty and insecurity with specific reference to Ireland and the UK. Little attention has been paid to how countries should meet their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food in developed countries. The paper contributes by examining the social and policy circumstances which inhibit poor households from obtaining sufficient food to eat healthily, along with strategies and interventions from State and civil society actors in the two countries. In practice, problems and potential solutions have largely been directed towards the individual rather than at social determinants, particularly as research on environmental factors such as distance to shops has produced equivocal results. Other key structural aspects such as income sufficiency for food are broadly ignored by the State, and anti-poverty strategies are often implemented without monitoring for effects on food outcomes. Thus scant evidence exists for either Ireland or the UK meeting its rights to food obligations to date, in terms of roles and responsibilities in ensuring access to affordable, available and appropriate food for all. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.