Feeding the Family With a Disability or Long-Term Health Condition: Lone-Parent Families at Risk of Food Insecurity in England and Denmark

Abstract

This chapter contributes to the literature on domestic food provisioning and food insecurity in contemporary Europe, focusing on lone-parent households living with a disability or long-term health condition, either of a parent and/or a child, in the United Kingdom and Denmark. Taking a comparative case approach, it examines parents' strategies to achieve food security through practices of ‘domestic food provisioning’ that draw on resources within and outside the household. Taking account of the multiple layers of context in which provisioning practices are embedded, this chapter identifies factors or mechanisms that enhance or reduce food security for families living with a disability or long-term health condition. At the micro-level of food preparation, these families experience challenges including cooking and requirements for labour-saving equipment, providing meals that meet the needs of selective eaters (often children), the need to rely on their children's help and for outsourced domestic labour through buying ready-made foods. At the meso-level of procurement and ‘physical access’ to shops, transport is crucial, with households experiencing differences in service provision. At the macro-level of national welfare systems and ‘economic access’ to food, this chapter points to evidence that Britain provides insufficient financial provision for those with a disability or long-term health condition compared with Denmark, differences reflected in the depth and rates of poverty and food insecurity between these countries. However, as the cases in both countries demonstrate, welfare benefits provide insufficient financial resources to access adequate nutritious food or meet customary norms.

Citation

Brannen, J., O’Connell, R. and Ditlevsen, K. (2024), "Feeding the Family With a Disability or Long-Term Health Condition: Lone-Parent Families at Risk of Food Insecurity in England and Denmark", Jacobsen, E., Strandbakken, P., Dulsrud, A. and Skuland, S.E. (Ed.) Consumers and Consumption in Comparison (Comparative Social Research, Vol. 37), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 39-65. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-631020240000037003