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Food insecurity: The resilient, but “silent poverty” perspectives of older ethnic minority individuals within UK communities

McEachern, Morven
; 
Ellahi, Basma
; 
Muzahid Khan, D. L.
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Other Contributors
Affiliation
University of Chester; Amana Foundation, Malvern, Pennsylvania, USA
EPub Date
Publication Date
2024-07-17
Submitted Date
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Health and Social Care
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Abstract
Food insecurity is acknowledged as a key social determinant of health among older adults. Despite recording significantly higher levels of poverty in comparison to white ethnic groups, older individuals from ethnic minorities are under-represented as recipients of food aid. Thus, there are knowledge gaps in our understanding of older people and their experiences of food insecurity within ethnic minority communities. Through the theoretical lens of Individual and Community Resilience, we empirically advance our understanding of food security and resilience within South Asian communities via in-depth interviews with community stakeholders and older individuals from Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities across the Greater Manchester region. Our findings reveal that the integration of temporal, environmental and social constructs within a resilience framework reveals significant potential for further negative social, cultural and economic impact on older ethnic minorities in the future, especially as current food support services do not appear to cater for ethnic dietary preferences, language accessibility and/or cultural norms regarding asking for help/charity outside the home. We predict therefore, in combination with the identified persistent stressors, that food insecurity issues within older ethnic minority communities are likely to get much worse, resulting in the need for extensive resilient capacities to cope with future cost-of-living challenges. In acknowledging previous limitations within previous resilience frameworks, we propose an incremental contribution to theory and conclude by identifying culturally and operationally appropriate food support system approaches, which can be used to address the increasing prevalence of “silent poverty” within ethnic minority communities.
Citation
McEachern, M. G., Ellahi, B., & Muzahid Khan, D. L. (2025). Food insecurity: The resilient, but “silent poverty” perspectives of older ethnic minority individuals within UK communities. Social Policy & Administration, 59(2), 237-251. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.13064
Publisher
Wiley
Journal
Social Policy & Administration
Research Unit
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10034/628860
DOI
10.1111/spol.13064
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
Language
en
Description
Series/Report no.
ISSN
0144-5596
EISSN
1467-9515
ISBN
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Sponsors
University of Chester QR Research Grant (QR769)
Additional Links
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/spol.13064