1 research outputs found
Designing a Community Ecosystem to Address Food Insecurity and Well-Being Among Elderly South Asian Adults: A Service Evaluation Framework Approach
No full textLevels of poverty and deprivation and the demand for food aid has increased significantly as a result of the joint effects of ongoing austerity measures (O’Loughlin et al., 2024), welfare reforms (DWP, 2015), pension credit cuts (Slocombe, 2023), the COVID-19 pandemic (Oncini, 2021; Summers et al., 2021) and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis (Moraes et al., 2024; Bull et al.,2023). Moreover, a significant correlation exists between these economic/social drivers and health inequalities (Garthwaite et al., 2015), with many predicting a public health emergency (Wolfson and Leung, 2020). Despite recording significantly higher levels of poverty, poor health and housing in comparison to white ethnic groups, older individuals from ethnic minorities are under-represented as recipients of food aid. Thus, there are many knowledge gaps in our understanding of food services provided to older people within older ethnic minority communities (Power et al., 2017). In response to this empirical gap, this research draws on service ecosystem evaluation frameworks (see Baron et al., 2018) to empirically advance our understanding of community food service provisioning within South Asian communities as well as identify appropriate food support ecosystem approaches which can be used to address food insecurity in ethnic minority communities. Through the use of in-depth interviews carried out by researchers belonging to Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities, our findings reveal that systems adressing food insecurity and well-being issues within older ethnic minorities are inadequate, especially considering specific cultural, social and economic shortfalls in the provision of appropriate services. Consequently, we conclude by providing recommendations to food service providers within ethnic minority communities.N/
