Serving neglect: Foodways in child protection cases

Abstract

This contribution analyses the problematics underlying how food related matters act as evidence of parental neglect in child protection work in Iceland. Our intention is to cast a critical light upon child protection workers’ judgments about the foodways practices of parents under investigation and what this says about the child protection system. Neglect on the basis of malnutrition is a very real and legitimate concern for child protection. However, the national level child protection guidelines in Iceland are bio-medical in nature and apply to issues such as ‘insufficient diet’ and ‘failure to thrive.’ In contract, some of the information regarding food-related practices of parents under investigation collected by the local level child protection committees appears to be grounded upon judgements informed by the cultural, class and individually-related values and biases. These judgements involve the power to transform trivial or mundane food practices into acts laden with significance. We contend that these value judgements about foodways matters can have significant implications for parents struggling to maintain the custody of their children, especially so in the case of marginalized parents who are already placed under a cloud of suspicion concerning their level of parenting competency. We conclude that there is a need for critical reflection upon how matters of food are constructed as evidence of neglect in these cases, and that a foodways approach can help to inject a needed critical perspective upon this aspect of child protection work.