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Relational Foodwork: Young People and Food Insecurity Kate Cairns Department of Childhood Studies, Rutgers University-Camden, Camden, NJ, USA

This paper explores the interdependency of food relations through young people’s accounts of food insecurity. Drawing on ethnographic research with a youth urban agriculture program in Camden, New Jersey (USA), I show how young people articulate experiences of food insecurity through the lens of maternal foodwork, describing efforts to support mothers who are struggling to provide in the context of poverty. As these teens articulate efforts to share foodwork with mothers, they not only challenge com- mon conceptions of generational feeding relations but also reveal the inadequacy of individualizing approaches to the autonomous food consumer. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and National Children’s Bureau

Keywords: food & diet, parenting, poverty, youth.

Introduction

Feminist scholars have demonstrated how motherhood and childhood are relationally consti- tuted (Burman, 2008; Lawler, 1999), and have highlighted the significance of food in this process (Lupton, 1996). From women’s personal narratives of feeding children (Harman and Cappellini, 2015), to popular representations of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mothers’ food choices (Boero, 2010; Hollows, 2016), the gendered work of caring through food is foundational to the ongoing production of motherhood and childhood. Even as teenage children take greater responsibility for feeding themselves (Backett-Milburn and others, 2010), in the context of family foodwork, young people are ‘generally thought of as the recipients, rather than the providers, of care’ (Best, 2017, p. 34).

This paper offers additional insight into the relational construction of mother and child through young people’s accounts of food insecurity. Drawing on ethnographic research in an urban agriculture program in Camden, New Jersey (USA), my analysis focuses on interviews with teenagers in which food insecurity emerged as a central theme. These young people discuss food insecurity through the lens of maternal foodwork, describing their own food struggles through the proximal experience of mothers’ labor and strain. Rather than empha- sizing their own hunger, young people describe efforts to support mothers who are strug- gling to put food on the table. Their accounts provide new insights into intergenerational feeding relations, a dynamic that is seldom studied through the perspectives of teenagers liv- ing in poverty. By articulating their material and emotional contribution to family foodwork, young people highlight the interdependencies of food-related care work, and challenge the individualizing framework that dominates contemporary efforts to improve the nutritional quality of young people’s diets (Gibson and Dempsey, 2013).

After situating my argument within scholarship on maternal foodwork and the negotiation of family food practices, I outline my research methods and present the findings in two sections. First, I share ethnographic observations to show how young people discussed food security in workshops and conversations with peers. Then, I provide a close reading of

CHILDREN & SOCIETY VOLUME 32, (2018) pp. 174–184 DOI:10.1111/chso.12259

interviews with four teenagers who shared personal experiences of food insecurity, and consider how their accounts contribute to a relational conception of foodwork.

The relationality of maternal foodwork

Feminist scholars identify a long-standing association between feeding children and concep- tions of ‘good’ mothering (Bugge and Almas, 2006; Cairns and Johnston, 2015; Cairns and others, 2013; DeVault, 1991). Analyzing college students’ family food memories, Best (2017, p. 45) describes how mothers were ‘cast as important caretakers who through their love willed the family ‘we’ into being’. Idealized imagery of maternal foodwork as the foundation of a happy, healthy childhood operates alongside stigmatizing images of the ‘bad’ mother who fails to live up to this ideal (Boero, 2010; Hollows, 2016). While moralizing claims about the ‘decline’ of the family meal position working mothers as a threat to contemporary childhood (O’Connell and Brannen, 2016), research with poor women reveals the material and emotional strain that emerges in the gap between food ideals and the experience of feeding children with limited resources (Bowen and others, 2014; Wright and others, 2015). These gendered penalties are not only classed but also racialized, as racist stereotypes position Black and Latina mothers as potentially failed caregivers (Boero, 2010), leading to intensified surveillance of mothers of color by a range of institutional authorities (Elliott and others, 2016).

In addition to reinforcing gendered, classed, and racialized inequalities, idealized concep- tions of maternal foodwork obscure intergenerational struggles that often characterize family food practices. Food provides a lens into negotiations of authority within family life (Back- ett-Milburn and others, 2010), including power struggles embedded in parent–child food interactions (Wills and others, 2008b). Previous studies have shown increasing autonomy in children’s food choices as they grow older (Backett-Milburn and others, 2006; O’Connell and Brannen, 2016), and have found that parents’ sense of control over teenagers’ diets is shaped by social class (Backett-Milburn and others, 2010; Fielding-Singh and Wang, 2017). Every- day food practices thus provide insight into broader dynamics of family life, including inter- generational relations (Wills and others, 2008b).

In this article, I consider accounts of feeding relations that are neither idealized nor oppo- sitional. While power struggles may exist within these young people’s food lives, their accounts of food insecurity emphasize collaboration, rather than conflict. Recognizing young people’s structural position within a generational order (Alanen, 1994), I foreground the interdependencies expressed through their accounts of food insecurity, and argue for a rela- tional understanding of foodwork.

In addition to complicating generational hierarchies, a relational conception of foodwork poses a fundamental challenge to the lone consumer subject (Carolan, 2011). While con- sumption is commonly framed in terms of individual choice — such as the dietary decisions of a young eater — Cook (2008, p. 237) suggests that the mother–child relation prompts a move ‘away from individuals exclusively to include relationships, obligations and reciproc- ity’. Within food studies, Gilson (2015, p. 24) calls for an analysis of food justice grounded in feminist concepts of relationality, dependency, and vulnerability, where vulnerability con- stitutes a ‘common, fundamental, formative condition’ rather than a deficit. She writes, ‘[t]he perception that dependence and the need for care make one inferior, compromised, and inca- pable of autonomy is perpetuated and exacerbated by a social world that valorizes indepen- dence as both a norm and an ideal’ (2015, p. 19). Similarly, Ahmed (2017, p. 17) situates fragility at the core of feminist practice, and suggests that ‘fragility gives us responsibility: to take care’. Thus, to draw on Roseneil and Ketokivi’s (2016, p. 146) conception of relation- ality, foodwork is relational both in the ‘weak’ sense of the term, referring to familial

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relations, and in the ‘stronger formulation’ that views the individual as an ongoing relational accomplishment. Our shared vulnerability is denied through models of the bounded self that erase the relations through which we are constituted.

Such interdependencies are rarely acknowledged in efforts to improve young people’s diets. Alkon and others (2013, p. 131) note that much nutrition research and advice begins from the assumption that ‘people do and ought to choose their foods as individuals, not as people embedded in social relationships of reciprocity and obligation’. These researchers call for greater scholarly attention to everyday foodways in the context of poverty, in order to recognize ‘the agency of marginalized people and the creative and culturally embedded coping strategies they use to navigate their circumstances’ (2013, p. 127). This attention to marginalized perspectives dovetails with research that values young people’s perspectives on food and well-being (Fram and others, 2011; Wills and others, 2008a). Recent research on young people’s experience of poverty reveals ‘sophisticated coping and mitigating strategies’ (Farthing, 2016, p. 108), not only in the interest of sustaining themselves but also in support of family members.

Maternal foodwork is commonly imagined as a hierarchical relation in which a mother cares for the vulnerable child. As children become teenagers, we might expect them to gain a degree of independence in their food choices. But in the context of poverty, our shared vulnerability is exposed. I suggest that as young people articulate efforts to share foodwork with mothers, they not only challenge common conceptions of generational feeding relations but also reveal the inadequacy of individualizing approaches to the autonomous food consumer.

Youth and food insecurity

Defined broadly, food insecurity refers to a lack of consistent access to nutritious, culturally appropriate food — an experience affecting one in five children in the USA (Waxman and others, 2016, p. 5). Given women’s disproportionate responsibility for feeding the family, the work of managing household food insecurity increases maternal food labor in the context of poverty (Olson, 2005). Research has shown how poor mothers use a range of strategies to maintain family food provision, often feeding children before themselves (Martin and Lippert, 2012; Olson, 2005). Fewer studies have explored this dynamic through young peo- ple’s perspectives (Widome and others, 2009). Backett-Milburn and others (2006, p. 629) found that teenagers’ diets were relatively low on parents’ ‘hierarchies of risk and worry’ within socioeconomically disadvantaged families. However, food worries become much more severe when there is not enough to eat.

Fram and others (2011) critique the common reliance upon parental reporting in studies of child food insecurity, noting that children may experience food insecurity differently given their social position. Through interviews with 9–16-year-olds, these researchers found young people were not only aware of family food struggles but also actively worked to manage this strain within the home. Even still, youth scholars note a continued ‘shortage of formal research investigating teens’ experience of food insecurity’ (Aviv quoted in Waxman and others, 2016, p. 3). My research suggests that a key way young people experience food insecurity is the proximal experience of maternal struggle.

Methods

This paper draws on ethnographic research with young people in Camden, New Jersey, USA, a predominantly Black and Latinx city with high rates of poverty and limited food access. During the summer of 2016, I conducted over 100 h of participant observation with a non- profit organization that hires Camden teenagers to grow food in urban gardens and sell it in

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a weekly farmers market. In addition to growing and selling food, young employees cook collective meals and participate in workshops relating to food justice. Those who return for a second year become youth leaders and co-facilitate workshops.

This research was part of a broader study exploring efforts to connect young people with their food. During the program orientation, I explained to young people that I was interested in learning about their experiences in the program, and that the best way for me to do so was to work alongside them. I spent two to three full days with the young people each week, gardening, cooking, helping at the farmers’ market, and participating in workshops. During my research, the program facilitator was a White man in his mid twenties and cooking work- shops were led by representatives from the local food bank, who were usually middle-aged White women, but sometimes included a woman of color. Youth participants were all Black and Latinx and ranged in age from 14 to 18.

At the end of the summer, I interviewed young people about their program experiences, and elicited broader reflections on issues of food and identity. Of the 12 program partici- pants, all but one obtained parental consent (in addition to their own assent), for a total of 11 interviews (six boys, five girls). Interviews lasted roughly 40 min and were held during the workday, at a quiet picnic table near the gardens but set apart from the group. I asked interviewees for general reflections on program experiences, including things they liked/dis- liked/learned, workshops that stood out in their minds, and feedback for program coordina- tors. I also elicited broader reflections on food in their lives, asking if food was ever a source of stress, and about the kinds of foods available at home, school, and in their neighborhood. The interviews provided a confidential setting in which young people could share reflections they may not have felt comfortable sharing with the group. I made clear that interviews would not be shared with program staff, except in the form of anonymous feedback. After the study’s completion, I summarized key themes from the research in a brief report for the organization, which they planned to use for program evaluation.

Interviews were transcribed verbatim, removing any identifying information and replacing participants’ names with pseudonyms. I used a two-stage qualitative coding process to first identify key themes, and then use these themes to guide focused coding (Charmaz, 2006). In this paper, I analyze observational and interview data relating to food (in)security.

As a White academic, originally from Canada and now working in Camden but living in nearby Philadelphia, I was an outsider in multiple ways. Sometimes this opened up opportu- nities for connection, as young people asked me asked about life in Canada and made an effort to share their knowledge of Camden with me. Conscious of how my race and age situ- ated me within an organization predominantly composed of White adults and youth of color, I made an effort to position myself as not an authority figure. I was pleased when I saw young people breaking minor rules in front of me, like texting while on the clock or spray- ing each other with water. My regular participation in everyday activities meant I became a familiar face over the summer. By the time of the interviews, the young people and I had a summer of shared experiences together.

Young people and food insecurity

Food security was a common topic of discussion throughout the summer, although it was only in the context of interviews that young people shared personal food struggles with me. During workshops, food insecurity was discussed as an issue of collective concern, while in conversations with peers, joking about the issue allowed young people to manage potential stigma. After establishing this ethnographic context, I shift to a close reading of interviews. My analysis shows how young people express their own experiences of food insecurity

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through the lens of mothers’ food struggles, gesturing toward a relational conception of foodwork.

Food insecurity as a community issue: ethnographic observations

As the group settled into the circle of couches after lunch one day, Jorell, a Black, 18-year- old youth leader, explained that today’s workshop explored food security, an issue shaped by location, income, ‘and sometimes even things like race’. Sitting beside me, Jelinda (Black, 17) snorted and said, ‘Sometimes?’ Jorell handed out three cards with key terms, and asked two young people to read aloud definitions for food security and insecurity. These definitions included access to nutritious, culturally appropriate food, not having to ration food, and not having to worry about where your next meal will come from. Jorell then asked Jelinda to read the definition of ‘food desert’, which was defined as an area in which residents must travel more than one mile to access fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, and dairy products. The explanation ended with specific examples, including ‘right here in Camden’. Continuing to read aloud, Jelinda said, ‘according to 2013 statistics, Camden is 9th on the list of top 10 food deserts in the US’. Will, a Black 17-year-old youth leader, shook his head and said, ‘a list we should not be proud to be on’.

After the key terms had been established, Jorell invited others to brainstorm groups of people who were more likely to be food insecure. Jacob (Latino, 15) called out ‘homeless people’, and Lenecia (Black, 16) said ‘a mother who has a bunch of kids and a job that only pays minimum wage’. Jorell recorded each suggestion on the board. When the ideas slowed down at one point, Ricardo (Latino 17) said, ‘What are we?’ gesturing to the rest of the group. Someone called out ‘minorities?’ and Jorell added racial minorities to the list. As the brainstorming continued, other suggestions included those living in poverty, ex-convicts, single mothers, immigrants, and finally, children. Explaining this last category, Will said, ‘Like, if a kid comes from a broken family and the mom is on drugs or something, they might not get food. And they can’t get it themselves’. Later, when the discussion turned to ways of addressing food insecurity, Jorell noted that their organization not only provides affordable, nutritious food in Camden but also hires local teenagers. ‘So we are addressing unemployment and providing Camden youth with access to income and fresh fruits and vegetables’, he said, ‘which you could then share with your family if you wanted to’.

Jorell’s reference to addressing food insecurity through youth employment suggests this issue might personally impact young people in the room. Yet, in these group discussions, food security was not discussed through the lens of personal experience. Given the stigma and shame associated with poverty and hunger (Waxman and others, 2016), it is unsurpris- ing that young people refrained from sharing personal food struggles in this semi-public setting. However, teens’ personal relationship with food insecurity sometimes became visible during interactions with peers.

One example of this occurred during a conversation about farmers’ market sales. Responsi- bility for the weekly market rotated among three groups, and the group who sold the most over the course of the summer was promised a percentage of total sales. The program facili- tator described this arrangement as ‘a little friendly competition’ to increase motivation, and it was one the young people embraced. Jacob was particularly set on winning, and regularly checked to see how weekly sales compared with his group’s numbers. One afternoon when the market group was tallying their sales, someone asked if anyone had paid using SNAP — the government funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. This led to a conversation about food assistance. Ricardo said his mom applied for SNAP, but was rejected because of her income. Lenecia said the same thing happened to her mom, since ‘they said she made too much’. Jacob shook his head and said, ‘Man, you’re

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makin’ my mom sound poor!’ Acknowledging that his family received SNAP, he framed his access to government assistance as an advantage in the competition for market sales. ‘Next time we have the market at the beginning of the month, I’m gonna come use up all my mom’s food stamps, buy everything!’ he said, prompting laughter from the others. While Jacob’s plan to win the market competition by spending his mother’s food stamps was shared in jest, his reference to receiving food stamps at the beginning of the month reveals a keen awareness of the temporality of food provision within his home. Food-insecure families often struggle to stretch government assistance throughout the month, leading to cyclical experi- ences of scarcity (Waxman and others, 2016). While Jacob discussed food stamps in a light- hearted tone with peers, his family’s struggles with food insecurity became apparent during our interview.

Food insecurity as maternal struggle: interviews

Jacob: ‘at the end of the day, she found a way to feed us’ During interviews, young people discussed how Camden residents’ lives are profoundly shaped by economic constraint. ‘The majority of the people in Camden are on food stamps, so they’re going to buy the cheapest thing’, said Jacob, a 15-year-old Latino boy who lived with his mother and teenaged brother. He saw poverty as the most significant factor shaping dietary choices within his community. ‘If they lowered prices down for that, I guarantee like half the people in Camden might actually buy organic food’, he said.

Reflecting upon his childhood food experiences, Jacob said ‘I grew up in the struggle, basically’. He described the challenge his mom faced feeding four children on her own with the limited resources available through food stamps. Given these difficult circumstances, Jacob commended his mother’s efforts, noting that ‘at the end of the day, she found a way to feed us’. Situating food struggles within the context of his neighborhood, Jacob described growing up on a street with pervasive drug activity and gun violence, prompting him and his brother to make a pact at a young age. ‘We just said we weren’t going to stay in the streets’, he said, describing their decision to commit to football instead. Now, he plays on the high school football team, a source of pride for his family. Blushing, he said, ‘my mom’s proud. She’s always trying to show us off on Facebook and all that’. When I asked how that made him feel he said, ‘it’s like, I’m happy to see my mom proud’. At this point in the inter- view, Jacob told me that with each paycheck he receives, half of the money goes directly to his mother. ‘I give it to her, she doesn’t ask for it’, he said, emphasizing this autonomous contribution. ‘That’s the only reason why I got this job’.

Jacob expresses his relationship with food insecurity through the lens of maternal strug- gle. Aware of the burden his mother faced raising four children in the context of poverty, Jacob is proud of his capacity to provide material support while resisting entry into the drug trade — a potential source of income that was readily apparent during my fieldwork. On two occasions, youth returned from community outreach with stories about being asked if they were selling drugs. Jorell told me that during the previous summer when he was distributing flyers for the market, a man answered the door with a stack of bills in his hand and said, ‘Why you doin’ this for $9 an hour? Do you know how fast I can make this much money?’ Young people frequently expressed frustration with negative portrayals of their community as though it were entirely defined by drugs and crime. I share these examples to situate Jacob’s comments within a setting where the drug trade is not only a visible component of young people’s lives, but arguably the most readily available source of income. This context is necessary to appreciate Jacob’s story about the decision he and his brother made to find alternative ways of supporting their mother. Adamant that his mother did not request this

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additional income, Jacob positions his contribution to family foodwork as an expression of care, reciprocating the care his mother provides through food.

Jelinda: ‘so my mom didn’t have to worry about it too much’ Jelinda, a Black 17-year-old who lived with her mom and two younger siblings, also spoke of the challenges Camden residents encountered when feeding their families. ‘A lot of times people don’t have the time because they have to go to another job’, she said. ‘And food is about, it’s about culture. . . but it’s also about time, and if you don’t have the time to make it, then you have to make something that is faster and possibly cheaper’. When asked if food was ever a source of stress in her life, Jelinda said ‘yeah, in the sense of not being able to have it’. She used the term ‘food insecurity’ to describe times when there’s no food in the house. ‘Like, there will literally be nothing’, she said. When there is food at home, Jelinda often feels compelled to save it for her younger siblings. ‘I’m like ‘you guys have to eat before me.’ Or if I know it’s something that they definitely won’t eat, then I’ll probably eat it and probably still save them something’. She talked about the importance of ‘feeling good and feeling full’, and her commitment to promoting these feelings in her siblings.

Jelinda was the only young employee who regularly took advantage of the free produce available after the farmers’ market. The program facilitator made clear that anything they did not sell was up for grabs, but most teens declined the offer, as popular items like toma- toes were long gone by the end of the day. Jelinda, on the other hand, made herself a bag of whatever remained, whether it was collard greens, eggplant, or okra. During the interview, she described this extra food as a welcome contribution at home. ‘I have to force myself and be like “okay, maybe I should try this today and figure that out,”’ she said, describing her first experience cooking eggplant. Jelinda framed this contribution to family meals as a way of easing the burden of maternal foodwork. ‘It’s helped with dinner’, she said. ‘So my mom didn’t have to worry about it too much’.

Dylan: ‘feeding you all before she feeds herself’ In addition to his position as a youth leader, Dylan worked a second job at a fast food restaurant. A Latino boy who had recently turned 18, he was approaching his final year of high school. One day while transplanting seedlings together, he mentioned that he had worked two double shifts over the weekend. I commented on his heavy work schedule, and he said, ‘yeah, it’s frustrating if you’re from Camden. Well, not everyone from Camden has no money, but I don’t, and you can’t afford to go to college’. As a result, he said, he needs to work as much as possible. ‘So I basically just gave up my whole summer’.

During our interview, Dylan said his experiences growing and cooking food inspired a new confidence in his ability to feed himself. ‘I know I could sustain myself because I learned so much from here. . . It’s like, I would never have to worry about food’. Dylan con- trasted this new sense of capacity with childhood experiences of food insecurity. ‘Growin’ up like, having to worry about havin’ the next meal and stuff like that. Now I don’t have to worry about that because I can do it myself if it ever got serious now’. Referring back to the workshop on food security, he said, ‘you see your mom like, feeding you all before she feeds herself, it does a lot. So it’s like, you wanna make sure you don’t have to go through that ever again’.

When asked if food was ever a source of stress in his life, Dylan said ‘I’m not sayin’ it was terrible, but life was kinda hard for me growin’ up’. He described having to share clothing with his brother and always having to shop at the cheapest stores. Returning to his mother’s struggle to feed the family, he said, ‘I’m not sayin’ food was a problem. Sometimes it was, but my mom always tried to do what she could’. Even as Dylan describes the toll of growing

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up in a household where food was a struggle, he is quick to voice appreciation for his mother’s foodwork. ‘Not sayin’ that I’m not grateful, because you know, you gotta be grate- ful because there are people that don’t have anything’. Now, Dylan’s family lives with his grandmother, and in this context food is more readily available. When asked about foods that are especially meaningful to him, he describes his mom’s signature dish: ‘My mom’s favourite thing to make is lasagna, so every time she makes lasagna I know it’s like, sup- posed to bring everybody together. . . Like, she hasn’t made it in a long time. When she does make it, it brings everybody together’.

Sheylinn: ‘you want your mom to be happy, right?’ When I asked Sheylinn, a Black 17-year-old who lived with her mom and younger sister, if any specific workshops stood out in her mind, she said ‘Yes, the food insecurity one. Because I can relate to that’. She went on to describe the relevance of this issue in both her commu- nity and her personal life. ‘Like, I see it every day, with the people around me, and not just that, like in my family’. When asked if food was ever a source of stress in her life, Sheylinn said, ‘Yes’, and then paused, considering how to express her thoughts. ‘My mom doesn’t always have. So, when I see her get like that, like she’s stressed because she can’t always get . . .’, once again, Sheylinn paused, selecting her words carefully. ‘Like, there’s always food on the table in some way or another, whether it comes from my grandmom or somebody else, but, she can’t always. . ..’

For Sheylinn, food insecurity was experienced most viscerally through her mother’s emo- tional strain. ‘I’ll see her get upset, and that reflects on me’, she explained. ‘Because you want your mom to be happy right? You want her to feel secure in that situation, but it’s not always like that. So it’s kind of hard and difficult to deal with’. I asked Sheylinn if she and her mother ever talk when this happens, and she said: ‘I’ll let her vent her piece, but I don’t find there’s really anything you can say. Like, you can be like, ‘it’s gonna be okay. You’ll find something. It’ll work out.’ But after a while you keep repeating those things and it’s just, there’s nothing else to say’.

As her mother struggles to care for Sheylinn through food, Sheylinn struggles to support her mother emotionally, wishing she could help her to ‘feel secure’. She offers an under- standing ear for her to ‘vent her piece’, and words of support when things get hard, but rec- ognizes the limitations of such support in the context of poverty. It is noteworthy that when describing food as a stress in her life, Sheylinn speaks not about her own hunger, but about the emotional experience of her mother’s strained foodwork. In this narrative, Sheylinn and her mother are tightly bound in foodwork relations.

Conclusion

In these interviews, young people articulate experiences of food insecurity through the lens of maternal foodwork. These teens assert that while their mothers struggle to maintain a con- sistent food supply, meals always end up on the table somehow. In doing so, they defend against the regulatory ideals of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mother, which not only press upon maternal identities, but also cast a shadow on recipients of mothers’ care. Viewing the work of feeding the family as an ongoing struggle, young people mobilize various resources to aid maternal foodwork. From the material contribution of Jacob’s paycheck and Jelinda’s cook- ing, to the emotional resources of Sheylinn’s listening ear, the experience of food insecurity is relationally negotiated through intergenerational ties of mutual support. As both recipients and bearers of care, young people position themselves as allies of mothers who are strug- gling to provide in the context of poverty. Their stories hold important policy implications, suggesting that when governments fail to provide sufficient support for families in poverty,

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state food assistance is supplemented by young people’s material and emotional labor. This finding echoes Burman’s (2008, p. 186) (italics in original) crucial insight regarding ‘the state as a key player in the woman-child relation’.

I have argued that young people’s accounts of food insecurity can contribute to a rela- tional conception of foodwork. Such a perspective works to contest ‘the problematic normal terrain on which public discussions of [food] issues are usually conducted: the terrain of choice, control, and individual responsibility’ (Gilson, 2015, p. 34). As young people’s food practices garner public concern, various initiatives attempt to improve the nutritional quality of their diets, commonly framed in terms of improving individual food choices. Previous scholars have shown how this individualizing framework obscures the structural factors shaping young people’s food options, including poverty and institutional racism (Gibson and Dempsey, 2013). Building on this work, I have suggested that individualizing narratives of the young food consumer also obscure relations of interdependency. While young people gain greater independence as they enter adolescence (Backett-Milburn and others, 2006), their food practices remain embedded within intergenerational relations. To suggest that foodwork is relationally negotiated does not diminish the significance of mothers’ labor; instead, it foregrounds the interdependency of all food relations. As young people highlight the relationality of maternal foodwork, their accounts challenge the model of the indepen- dent food consumer that is so often revered within the North American foodscape.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Rutgers University Research Council grant (202293 RC-17). I am grateful to the young people in Camden who shared their experiences with me.

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Correspondence to: Kate Cairns, Department of Childhood Studies, Rutgers University-Camden, 405-407 Cooper St.,

Camden, New Jersey 08102, USA, Tel./Fax: +1 215-275-8375. E-mail: [email protected]

Relational Foodwork 183

http://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/our-research/teen-hunger-research/bringing-teens-to-the-table.pdf

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2524.2008.00764.x

Accepted for publication 23 November 2017

Contributor’s details

Kate Cairns is Assistant Professor of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden. Her work uses feminist, interdisciplinary perspectives to examine how children and youth are constructed as the promise and/or threat of collective futures. She is coauthor of Food and Femininity (Bloomsbury 2015) and Introducing Sociology Using the Stuff of Everyday Life (Routledge 2017), and has published in journals such as Gender & Society, Theory and Society, Children’s Geographies, Antipode, and Journal of Consumer Culture.

184 Kate Cairns

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