Introduction

This chapter investigates the main pathways through food poverty, by exploring the experience of food aid recipients. Respondents described the impact of living through food poverty and it clearly affected their lives in many different ways. Food bank users in Dublin were asked about the difficulty of having no food and the experience of hunger, maintaining an appropriate diet, emotional experiences and social exclusion. The chapter presents important coping strategies, as respondents struggled to make ends meet and prioritise their spending. Respondents were asked about food shopping, providing for children and coping with special occasions when money was scarce. Finally, the use of moneylenders and support networks at pressure points in their lives was explored.

Impacts of food poverty

Hunger and running out of food

Many respondents reported they had experienced hunger after running out of food. Respondents described the different ways that hunger affected them, including food cravings, insomnia and a feeling that eating any food was better than going without:

Respondents also experienced hunger when they had little remaining food, but not sufficient for their needs: “We would have probably gone to bed hungry because we would not have eaten as well as we would have liked. We do our best with what we have. If we go hungry, we go hungry” (Kathleen). Respondents described how occasionally there would be little or no food left in the home: