Community Meals Research Articles

Concevoir un centre alimentaire communautaire pour favoriser la sécurité alimentaire

Objective: The objective of this community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) project was to gain an in-depth understanding of the needs, interest and opportunities that exist within a post-secondary institution with respect to supporting food security among students via a food hub. Methods: The project was undertaken on the campus of the University of British Columbia-Vancouver. The CBPAR approach included 4 phases: 1) information gathering, 2) relationship development, 3) implementation of the community engagement strategy, and 4) shareback of findings to the community. Results: Phase 1 identified key components that formed the research process including campus partners for relationship development (phase 2) and subsequent engagement through their networks (phase 3). Phase 3 included engagement of 62, 111, 156, and 154 students, who participated in facilitated dialogues, community meals, a survey and targeted survey, respectively. Food insecurity related experiences were prevalent, with 37% to 75% indicating they worried about running out of food in the last year. Over 90% of all survey respondents affirmed that they would access a community food hub (CFH). Preferences for the CFH were inclusion of emergency food access, community meals, and financial support and planning, while prioritizing foods that meet cultural needs, and a low cost grocery store within the CFH. Conclusion: There is a demonstrated need and desire among students for innovative approaches to support food security at a post-secondary institution. The process outlined may serve as a road map for other communities who are seeking to move beyond emergency food relief.

Social gastronomy initiatives in Copenhagen, Denmark for food security, sustainability and health

Abstract Issue/problem Social gastronomy addresses the inclusion of socially marginalized communities in using food-related activities to improve the food system and nutrition. In Denmark, the project Green Sustainable Communities in a housing area in Copenhagen, aimed to develop social gastronomy methods, promote sustainable meals while empowering lower socio-economic households with sustainable, healthy, and affordable cooking practices. Interventions included community-based solutions e.g. meals, gardening, and food courses. Description of the problem Promoting sustainable diets with a low environmental impact contribute to food security and health for present and future generations (FAO, 2010). More households in affluent countries like Denmark are faced with food security challenges due to poverty and increasing expenses. Diabetes and marginalization are prevalent. The project engaged residents in food related activities to promote social wellbeing and sustainable meals. The project addressed food and garden activities relevant for specific groups of residents and ways of integrating sustainable cooking practices into community food practices. Results Solutions were local food initiatives to promote affordable, climate friendly and healthy diets using surplus food from retailers specifically fruits and vegetables combined with affordable legumes. Initiatives integrated community meals, food courses and urban gardening, increasing social wellbeing and improving nutrition. Lessons Combining people's own recipes with sustainable ones empowers and recognizes food cultures and skills related to sustainable meals. We used innovative collaboration between a housing organization and a nutrition education, where students collaborated with residents to create sustainable food practices. Key messages • Social gastronomy activities can inspire and increase access to healthy, sustainable, and affordable meals amongst low-income households. • Combining different food initiatives appeal to different target groups and inspire more sustainable and nutritious meals.

Nourishing the Body, Disenfranchising the Spirit: Convivial Hospitality, Dignity, and Commensality in a Presbyterian Church in Toronto

Within the multicultural and multiracial city of Toronto Ontario, the space of the church is a place for racialized and white Presbyterian women to negotiate convivial hospitality, dignity, and notions of the good life. I use the concept of convivial hospitality to show how conviviality aligns with Christian hospitality when it centres on people’s will for spiritual and physical wellbeing through their relationships and interactions with others. This article focuses on the affective labour involved in the preparation of church community dinners, which were developed and organized by older, racialized Presbyterian women. Meal-time preparations are moments when convivial hospitality emerges among racialized women who pass the time by sharing their food, memories, and life stories, thus affirming a sense of dignity and belonging. Conviviality, however, takes an inhospitable turn when racialized women are subjected to undignified sociality. In exploring times when white Presbyterian women assisted with the community meals, the manner of their help coopted and disenfranchised racialized women from their service to the church and to God. What emerges is convivial inhospitality as racialized churchgoers are subjected to hierarchal interactions, making them feel like outsiders within their own church; yet, in caring for the wellbeing of white congregants to maintain social harmony and congregational unity, they tolerate the status quo which they see as Christian convivial hospitality.

Does gender structure social networks across domains of cooperation? An exploration of gendered networks among matrilineal and patrilineal Mosuo.

Cooperative networks are essential features of human society. Evolutionary theory hypothesizes that networks are used differently by men and women, yet the bulk of evidence supporting this hypothesis is based on studies conducted in a limited range of contexts and on few domains of cooperation. In this paper, we compare individual-level cooperative networks from two communities in Southwest China that differ systematically in kinship norms and institutions-one matrilineal and one patrilineal-while sharing an ethnic identity. Specifically, we investigate whether network structures differ based on prevailing kinship norms and type of gendered cooperative activity, one woman-centred (preparation of community meals) and one man-centred (farm equipment lending). Our descriptive results show a mixture of 'feminine' and 'masculine' features in all four networks. The matrilineal meals network stands out in terms of high degree skew. Exponential random graph models reveal a stronger role for geographical proximity in patriliny and a limited role of affinal relatedness across all networks. Our results point to the need to consider domains of cooperative activity alongside gender and cultural context to fully understand variation in how women and men leverage social relationships toward different ends. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives'.

Assessment of the Quality of Services Offered to Heroin Users Under Methadone by the Dakar Center for Integrated Addiction Care (CEPIAD)

Drug addiction is a major public health problem in Senegal. One of the responses has been the establishment of a Center for Integrated Addiction Care in Dakar (CEPIAD). The objective of this study is to evaluate the quality of services offered to heroin users under methadone substitution treatment. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study based on a systematic sampling of one hundred (100) heroin users under methadone substitution treatment who had given their consent. Individual interviews were conducted with patients regularly followed at the center from December 16, 2016 to February 17, 2017. Data were entered and analyzed using Epi-info and Excel software. There was a male predominance with 92 males and 8 females (sex ratio of 11.5). The average age was 48.8 years with a standard deviation of 9.7. The vast majority of respondents were Senegalese (99%), with 78% living in the city and 22% in the suburbs of Dakar. The vast majority were single, divorced or widowed (61%). The level of education was relatively high; 11% had a university level, 47% a high school level, 31% an elementary school level, and only 1 person had no schooling. Among the respondents, 39 were unemployed, 1 was a housewife, 5 were retired; the other 55 had an income-generating activity, including 42 in the informal sector. All of the respondents were satisfied and had access to risk reduction materials for sexually transmitted infections (RDR). The 80 respondents participate regularly in social activities such as talks, community meals, etc. The other 20 do not have the time to participate. Methadone is delivered from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on weekdays. Only 57 respondents were satisfied with the schedule. The 28% of heroin addicts said they were very satisfied with the methadone program and 70 were moderately satisfied and asked for the possibility of taking a week's supply. The single use of the cups reserved for the oral administration of methadone was requested by 2% of patients. Heroin addicts are generally satisfied, but it is necessary to insist on awareness raising, information and withdrawal. It is important to extend CEPIAD's activities to other regions and, above all, to help heroin addicts get a socioprofessional reintegration.

Reducing Sodium Intake in Community Meals Programs: Evaluation of the Sodium Reduction in Communities Program, Arkansas, 2016-2019.

The Sodium Reduction in Communities Program (SRCP) aims to reduce dietary sodium intake through policy, systems, and environmental approaches. We evaluated progress of 3 years of SRCP activities in 3 community meals programs in northwest Arkansas. These activities sought to reduce dietary sodium intake through implementation of 1) food service guidelines, 2) procurement practices, 3) food preparation practices, and 4) environmental strategies. Mean reductions of 579 mg (−40%) in sodium served per diner and 525 mg (−22%) in sodium per 1,000 kcal served per diner were found from baseline to Year 1. Mean reductions of 499 mg (−35%) in sodium served per diner and 372 mg (−16%) in sodium per 1,000 kcal served per diner were sustained from baseline to Year 3. These results highlight the effectiveness and sustainability of sodium reduction interventions in community meals programs, whose diners experience food insecurity, have low incomes, and are at high risk for hypertension.

Influenza Outbreak and a Group Meal in a Geriatric Long-term Care Facility in Japan.

Influenza outbreaks at geriatric long-term care facilities (g-LTCFs) can be deadly and their prevention is important. However, the factors influencing disease transmission in g-LTCFs remain controversial. In this descriptive study, we tried to identify the potential risk factors influencing influenza outbreaks that occurred in different influenza seasons within a single g-LTCF with 100 residents in Gunma Prefecture. We reviewed the detailed facility records for all influenza cases in both residents and staff between January 2012 and June 2020. Facility preventive measures were also reviewed. We found that community meals may have been a potential source of transmission leading to the outbreaks. When influenza infection is noted, implementation of strict preventive measures and restriction of meal provision to resident rooms may help to prevent disease transmission and the development of an outbreak. Such measures may also be useful to prevent the transmission of other serious droplet-borne diseases within g-LTCFs.

Overcoming the social stigma of consuming food waste by dining at the Open Table

Stigma is often encountered by recipients who receive food donations from charities, while the consumption of wasted food, also traditionally considered to be a stigmatized practice, has recently become part of a popular food rescue movement that seeks to reduce environmental impacts. These two stigmas—charitable donation and the consumption of waste—are brought together at the Open Table, a community group in Melbourne, Australia, that serves community meals cooked from surplus food. This paper examines how Open Table de-stigmatizes food donations through food waste discourse to enable greater social inclusion. I draw on the experiences of donors, cooks, volunteers and eaters gathered from diverse Open Table sites. Taking a ‘follow-the-thing’ approach, I analyze how food ‘waste’ becomes re-valued by embracing goals of environmental justice enacted through local processes of care and conviviality. Relying on networks of volunteers and not-for-profit agencies, Open Table provides a simple, effective and adaptable model for possible replication for overcoming drawbacks of traditional charity practices. Critically though, as hunger in society continues to grow, this approach is increasingly threatened by the need to ‘single out’ disadvantaged recipients to justify continued supply. This paper contributes to food poverty, waste, and Alternative Food Network literature in two important ways: first, by analyzing the outcomes of community food redistribution approaches with regards to stigma and inclusion; and secondly, by arguing that such holistic approaches need to be acknowledged, valued and supported to shift current discourses and practice.

O24 Small Swaps, Big Changes: Sodium Reduction in School and Community Meals

Objective Use process and outcome evaluation techniques to evaluate a Sodium Reduction in Communities Program implemented with 58 schools, 17 early childhood education (ECE) centers, and 5 community meals programs across northwest Arkansas. Use of Theory or Research Increased sodium consumption is associated with increased risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and sodium reduction is associated with numerous health benefits. Community-based participatory research and behavioral economics approaches were used to develop tailored strategies to reduce sodium. Target Audience The target audience includes program staff, K-12 and ECE students and staff, low-income individuals accessing community meals, and managers of partner programs. Program Description A variety of sodium reduction strategies, including ingredient substitutions, meal/menu modifications, standardized purchasing lists, and behavioral economics were implemented across all sites to reduce the sodium content of meals. Evaluation Methods To evaluate program implementation, data were collected at baseline and annually thereafter. Evaluation data were collected via detailed menu information, production records, point-of-sale records, purchasing lists, and interviews with program staff. Each year, evaluation findings are used to improve program activities. Results The program now reaches more than 50,000 individuals per day. To date, 90 menu items have been affected by recipe modification across all sites. From Baseline to Year 3, the sodium content of entrees offered, entrees served, and meals served in schools decreased 13.5%, 4.7%, and 3.8%, respectively. Among ECEs and community meals, the sodium content of meals offered and meals served decreased 39.4% and 18.8%, respectively, from Baseline to Year 3. Conclusion Sodium reduction strategies in schools, ECEs, and community meals programs lead to a reduction in sodium served to students, staff, and clients. The program will continue to be expanded and enhanced using process and outcomes evaluation findings, ultimately leading to a reduction in sodium consumption and chronic disease incidence in northwest Arkansas. Funding Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

지자체 농촌마을 공동급식의 실태와 과제 : 충청남도를 중심으로

농촌마을의 과소 · 고령화의 심화로 인해 마을 공동급식(공동식사)의 필요성이 높아가고 있다. 더욱이 이 사업의 긍정적인 효과로 인해 일부 지자체는 2012년부터 농번기에 한해 농촌마을 공동급식 지원 사업을 시작했다. 이후 지역주민의 호응으로 전남도, 충남도 등 타 지자체로 확산되고 있는 추세이다. 하지만 농촌마을 공동급식은 급식지원 인력, 운영 자금의 부족, 식사 관리 등 여러 어려움을 겪고 있다.<BR> 따라서 본 연구는 농촌마을의 과소 · 고령화로 점점 활력을 잃어가고 있는 상황에서 농촌마을 공동급식의 현황과 문제점을 파악하고 개선 방안을 도출하고자 했다. 특히 농사일과 가사 노동이라는 이중의 부담을 앉고 있는 여성농민의 가사 부담을 경감시켜주고 고령농가의 고립과 음식 불균형 문제를 해결하고 나아가 공동체 활성화에 기여하고자 현재 실시되고 있는 농촌마을 공동급식 지원 사업의 실태와 문제점을 파악해 이를 활성화할 수 있는 방안을 모색했다.<BR> 결론적으로 농촌마을 공동급식의 활성화를 위해서는 지자체가 농촌마을 공동급식 사업을 주민의 복지 증진 차원에서 확대할 필요가 있으며 기간도 농번기에서 다른 시기까지 확대할 필요가 있다. 무엇보다 지자체가 농촌마을 공동급식을 공공급식의 영역으로 확대하고 이를 꾸준히 지원할 필요가 있다.

Word and Table: The Origins of a Liturgical Sequence

Abstract This article shows that the word-table liturgical sequence set forth in Justin Martyr’s First Apology and attested by at least two other ancient descriptions of Christian community meals is not a departure from Greco-Roman banquet custom but has parallels in the wider culture. The evidence is examined in detail, and a possible rationale for a word-table sequence in a banquet setting is proposed.

Eating Climate Change with Making the Best of It Dandelion: Collaborative Public Art as a Mode of Future-Oriented Learning

Long-term public art projects that engage public audiences in collaborative learning can be powerful venues for exploring public pedagogy and for investigating the mechanisms that allow people to learn and change. In the iterative and exploratory modes such projects usually require, we can learn a tremendous amount from interactions over time among the many audiences and networks that these projects involve—creative teams, production crews, performance staff, volunteers, participants, onlookers, and viewers of documentation. This article discusses a year-long public art project designed to engage diverse audiences in imaginative consideration of their future agency in the face of a changing climate. The project was carried out in a range of settings—public art festivals, university symposia, community meals, seminars and large lecture classrooms, and online—and the process provided many opportunities to learn about the methodology of developing and carrying out participatory future-casting events. The varied frameworks of this project provided practice with a range of interaction mechanics, and also provided participants with the chance to learn, with others, how to leverage the familiar in order to address the strange. We consider how this project maintains a focus on inclusive and equitable process in future building, and particularly how explicitly focusing on play, silence, beauty, stress, and the more-than-human contributes to successful learning, and to moving beyond some of the barriers we commonly experience in sustainability-oriented teaching and social organizing.

Container gardening to combat micronutrients deficiencies in mothers and young children during dry/lean season in northern Ghana

ABSTRACTFood insecurity is prevalent in northern Ghana, where dry season stretches for 7–8 months (Oct-May) a year and the majority of inhabitants are subsistence farmers. We aimed to address inadequate dietary sources of iron and iodine in the dry/lean season by mother-child dyads by developing unconventional food production systems. Women group with 6–24-month-old children (n = 58) in two communities farmed 40 wooden containers for growing indigenous iron-rich (19.30 mg/100 g) Hibiscus sabdariffa for consumption and 15 containers for cash crop cabbage. Hibiscus sabdariffa produced from two harvest cycles/dry season and cash crops were adequate for three weekly community meals that improved iron and iodine status of the participating mother-child dyads. Future research is needed to expand the project to involve all households in the communities.

Community Building in the Shepherd of Hermas: A Critical Study of Some Key Aspects by Mark Grundeken

Using a historical-critical method, Grundeken seeks to demonstrate his thesis in eleven aspects, organized in three main groups: four aspects of identity—the relation to Judaism, the views on the resurrection, the stance on outsiders, and the position on the authorities; two social aspects—the role of women and “charity”; and five ritual aspects—baptism and metanoia, community meals, the Sunday collection, dancing (and singing), and the “holy kiss.” [...]Chapter Eleven argues for a ritual kiss in Hermas’s community, turning sexual symbolism into a manifestation of asexual love. [...]the book tends to treat each theme/chapter in fragmented ways, and the author fails to connect and integrate several important themes together that are organically connected in Hermas: e.g., charity, metanoia, community meals, and even Sunday collection.

From Ancient Vegetarianism to Contemporary Advocacy

Abstaining from meat consumption has persistently been a source of debate within religious communities, often functioning as a center pivot around which theological or philosophical orthodoxy and orthopraxy turns. Drawing upon diverse ancient practices, motivations, and textual perspectives in Judaism, Christianity, and Indic traditions along with contemporary religious vegetarians, this essay maps three stages that religious communities have historically grappled with, are presently attempting, and must continue to tackle, as they re/consider eating animals and animal by-products as part of their ethical identities and community meals: (1) critical, deconstructive engagement of textual multiplicity and interpretive authority, (2) robust analysis of human supremacy in light of animal behavioral studies, new materialist science, and empathic experience, and (3) constructing imaginative coalitions beyond species, institutional boundaries, and cultural identities.

Gemeinschaftsmahl? War einmal

Le théâtre autrichien peut être qualifié à juste titre de « culinaire » en écho à ses racines, la dramaturgie théâtrale populaire des Hanswurstiades s’étant constituée dans un rapport ludique à l’alimentation.Cet héritage semble être revitalisé non seulement par Thomas Bernhard et Elfriede Jelinek, mais aussi par de jeunes dramaturges autrichiens qui traitent des questions virulentes de notre époque en recourant aux ingrédients dramaturgiques ayant trait à la table. Cependant, une différenciation s’impose. Si dans les textes de théâtre actuels on cultive encore l’hospitalité, le topos de la table à manger qui fonde la sociabilité et la culture est désormais relégué à l’arrière-plan et laisse apparaître des espaces de passage précaires où la soif de stabilité et d’identité tend à constituer la quintessence du discours. Nous vérifierons l’hypothèse d’une fragilisation de l’ordre (de la table) qui appelle une nouvelle localisation du sujet, en dissolution depuis la proclamation de la postmodernité, à partir des textes (post)dramatiques faust hat hunger und verschluckt sich an einer grete (Ewald Palmetshofer, 2009), Alpenvorland (Thomas Arzt, 2012) et Die Ermüdeten oder Das Etwas, das wir sind (Bernhard Studlar, 2014).

LOS SIGNIFICADOS DE LOS ALIMENTOS PROVENIENTES DE LA PRODUCCIÓN ORIENTADA AL AUTOCONSUMO EN EL NOROESTE ARGENTINO

The aim is to analyze discussions about food emerging fromthe field of food production self-sufficiency in northwesternArgentina, in the context of an industrialized and hegemonicproduction of foods that tends to globally homogenize diets.Therefore, cuisine broadly, involving the facets of production,distribution, preparation and consumption, was trackedand studied. The ethnographic research involved in-depthinterviews and participative observation, taking as a case studya northwestern Argentina village. Among the results emerged,with gradations, the farmers’ autonomy when producing foodtargeted to self-sufficient consumption, which have their ownseeds, organic fertilizers, knowledge and skills to produce andprepare them, as well as trade and exchange networks amongrelatives and friends outside the distribution channels of thehegemonic food agribusiness sphere. The place of these foods indaily intakes is viewed as secondary in relation to the ones fromthe hegemonic sphere, although critical in certain seasons, andwithin numerous community meals in this region. Among theconclusions, the diversifier rather than homogenizer impact ofthe hegemonic food agribusiness production was considered. It ispossible to see that the persistence of crops and raising animals forself-sufficient consumption can be accomplished by implementingseveral strategies, values, meanings and memories that move andallow the continuity of the production unit as well as its culturein a broader sense. DOI: 10.12957/demetra.2015.15520

Against a de-politicized DIY urbanism: Food Not Bombs and the struggle over public space

Cultivated by non-professionals, do-it-yourself (DIY) interventions in urban space are gaining serious credibility in the professional design fields. But as these professionals take up the flag of small-scale and social justice-inspired action in design handbooks and art exhibits, what happens to the struggles that informed the tactics? This article presents the DIY urban tactics of Food Not Bombs as a counter case study that problematizes the recent professional attention given to DIY, tactical or spontaneous urbanism. Forged in a struggle against the structural violence of capitalism, and based in the use of public space for community meals, Food Not Bombs challenges de-politicized notions of tactical or DIY urbanism.

Sharing Food and Breaking Boundaries: Reading of Acts 10–11: 18 as a Key to Luke’s Ecumenical Agenda in Acts

In Acts 10–11: 18, Luke use a set of connected stories about Peter, shared eating, and food to explore issues of Christian boundaries and the boundaries between Christians. Luke’s presentation of the apostolic history argues for a genuine ecumenism between Jewish and Gentile Christians characterized and enacted through commensality. Moreover, when this commensality within the Eucharistic pattern of all early Christian community meals, we see that it has a bearing on how Luke viewed the Christian symposium; while it has definite implications for Christian Eucharistic sharing/ecumenism today.

FEEST on this: youth engagement for community change in the King County Food and Fitness Initiative

Empowering youth to affect change in their lives and their communities can result in healthier youth and communities. The Food Empowerment Education and Sustainability Team (FEEST) engages youth 12–24 in two ethnically diverse communities in King County, WA around food justice and food systems. At FEEST, youth and adults participate as equals. The core of the program is weekly dinners where youth cook and eat local fresh food while engaging in facilitated discussions about community, local food systems, and the role social determinants of health play in access to healthy food. A second core component is the paid youth internship program. Since FEEST’s inception in 2008 through 2012, there have been over 900 participants in dinners and over 36 paid interns. Key success factors include: egalitarian youth–adult relationships, youth-driven programming, clear roles and expectations, project-based learning with paid internships, and using food and community meals as the convening platform.