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Children's feeding programs in Atlantic Canada: reducing or reproducing inequities?
L McIntyre1, K Travers, J B Dayle
1Faculty of Health Professions, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Lynn.McIntyre@dal.ca
Summary
Children's feeding programs can stigmatize families and exclude parents, despite aiming for equality. These programs may inadvertently increase institutional control and reproduce inequities rather than reduce them.
Area of Science:
- Sociology of Food
- Child Welfare Studies
- Public Health Interventions
Background:
- Children's feeding programs operate under an ideology of equality.
- These programs serve participants in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the operations and impacts of nine children's feeding programs.
- To investigate the social and familial consequences of program participation.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative case study approach.
- In-depth analysis through day-to-day observations.
- Interviews with program recipients and operators.
Main Results:
- Programs contribute to the stigmatization of participants and their families.
- Programs often assume a family substitution role, excluding parental involvement.
- A hidden curriculum is transmitted, teaching children specific behaviors and family norms.
- Professionalization, client base expansion, and material aid creation lead to institutional control (the 'dragnet').
Conclusions:
- Children's feeding programs, despite addressing some nutritional needs, can reproduce social inequities.
- The 'dragnet' mechanism exerts increasing institutional control over recipients.
- Parental exclusion and stigmatization undermine program goals of equality.