"Nothing is going to change three months from now": A mixed methods characterization of food bank use in Greater Vancouver
"Nothing is going to change three months from now": A mixed methods characterization of food bank use in Greater Vancouver
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DOI：
10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.01.029
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发表时间：
2018-03-01
影响因子：
5.4
通讯作者：
Wittman, Hannah
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Holmes, Eleanor;Black, Jennifer L.;Wittman, Hannah
自 20 世纪 80 年代以来，北美食品银行的使用量急剧增加，据估计，2015 年每月有超过 850,000 名加拿大人访问食品银行。食品银行在社区中发挥着多种作用，从“紧急反应”到个性化和短期的饥饿体验，再到作为长期生存策略一部分的“长期”支持。本研究采用混合方法设计来研究大型城市背景下食品银行用户体验的范围，作为基于社区的项目的一部分，旨在设想重新设计食品银行，以促进更广泛的社区粮食安全成果。调查（n = 77）和焦点小组（n = 27）结果表明，参与者普遍认为食物银行是一项长期的食物获取战略。财政资源不足、住房和食品成本急剧增加以及长期健康挑战成为影响食品银行使用的最突出因素。参与者普遍报告，尽管使用了食品银行，但食品需求仍未得到满足，影响获得充足食物的因素的机构有限，并且预计未来需要食品银行服务。这些研究结果对全球将食品银行建设为“紧急”食品提供者提出了质疑，并支持越来越多的证据表明，食品银行不足以应对长期贫困、缺乏负担得起的住房以及造成粮食不安全的社会援助率不足的问题。与会者设想对粮食银行系统进行改革，以增强社区粮食安全，包括提高粮食质量和数量（短期）、改变服务提供方式并加强与卫生服务的联系（能力建设），以及在减贫宣传中发挥更大作用（系统重新设计）。
North American food bank use has risen dramatically since the 1980s, and over 850,000 Canadians were estimated to have visited a food bank monthly in 2015. Food banks serve multiple roles in communities, ranging from 'emergency responses' to individualized and short-term experiences of hunger, to 'chronic' supports as part of long-term subsistence strategies. This study used a mixed-methods design to examine the spectrum of food bank user experiences in a large urban context, as part of a community-based project aiming to envision a redesign of the food bank to contribute to broader community food security outcomes. Survey (n = 77) and focus group (n = 27) results suggested that participants widely viewed food banks as a long-term food-access strategy. Inadequate financial resources, steep increases in housing and food costs, and long-term health challenges emerged as the most prominent factors influencing food bank use. Participants commonly reported unmet food needs despite food bank use, limited agency over factors influencing access to sufficient food, and anticipated requiring food bank services in future. These findings contest global constructions of food banks as "emergency" food providers and support growing evidence that food banks are an insufficient response to chronic poverty, lack of affordable housing and insufficient social assistance rates underlying experiences of food insecurity. Participants envisioned changes to the food bank system to increase community food security including improved food quality and quantity (short-term), changes to service delivery and increased connections with health services (capacity building), and a greater role in poverty reduction advocacy (system redesign).