"It Made Me Feel Like a Person Again". Social Isolation and Meals on Wheels Social Connection Programmes

Abstract: Social isolation and loneliness are associated with negative health outcomes, and these outcomes are exacerbated among older adults who are homebound. To address this issue, Meals on Wheels programs increasingly provide social connection services to clients in addition to home-delivered meals. This descriptive qualitative study examines the impact of three types of social connection programs on the well-being of homebound older adult clients, as well as on the volunteers and staff members who deliver the programs. 

Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with 117 clients, volunteers, and staff in six Meals on Wheels social connection programs across the United States indicated that program participation was associated with substantial benefits. Benefits included the development of supportive friendships, reduced feelings of loneliness, and an improved overall sense of well-being. Insights from this study may inform the development, expansion, and sustainability of social connection programs provided by community-based organizations. (Gadbois et al., 2024)

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- Gadbois, E. A., Brazier, J. F., Turner, J., Hawes, C., Florence, L. C., Belazis, L. (20024). "It Made Me Feel Like a Peron Again": Benefits of Meals on Wheels-Based Social Connection Programs. Journal of Applied Gerontology, link

- photograph by Martin Parr via

Hunger has a Female Face

49,7% of the world population is female, however, women and girls make up 60% of the 309 million people extremely hungry right now. 126 million more women than men struggle securing their next meal (via). In countries facing hunger due to conflict, women often eat least sacrificing for their families. In two thirds of countries, women are more likely to report food insecurity than men. One in three women has anemia, a diet-related iron deficiency, which can damage organs if it is untreated (via).

photograph by Vivian Maier via

Women Eating Less When Dining With Men?

Young et al. (2009) observed students in naturalistic settings, i.e., in university cafeterias. Results show that women chose food of significantly lower caloric value (540 calories) when eating with a male companion (date situation). Eating with a group of men meant even lower calories (450). The food chosen was higher in calories (670 calories) when dining with another woman and even higher (750) when eating with a group of women. Allen-O-Donnell et al. (2011) came to similar conclusions.

Men, according to the study carried out by Young et al. (2009) were not affected by the gender of their dining companions (via and via). Allen-O'Donnell et al.'s (2011) findings suggest an inverse impact. In other words, men eating with women purchase more calories than those eating with men (via). According to a study published in 2015, males dining with females consume significantly more than males dining with males. Interestingly, the "sex of a female's eating partner did not significantly influence" how much food was consumed (Kniffin, Sigirci & Wansink, 2016).

In a naturalistic study, we investigated the influence of gender, group size and gender composition of groups of eaters on food selected for lunch and dinner (converted to total calories per meal) of 469 individuals (198 groups) in three large university cafeterias. In dyads, women observed eating with a male companion chose foods of significantly lower caloric value than those observed eating with another woman. Overall, group size was not a significant predictor of calories, but women's calories were negatively predicted by numbers of men in the group, while the numbers of women in the group had a marginally significant positive impact on calorie estimates. Men's calorie totals were not affected by total numbers of men or women. This study supports previous investigations, but is unique in making naturalistic observations. (Young et al., 2009)

"It is possible that small food portions signal attractiveness, and women conform, whether consciously or unconsciously, to small meals in order to be seen as more attractive,"
Meredith Young

"The theory is you're more aware of gender when you're with the opposite gender and may want to prove your gender more."
Marci Cottingham

Male and female subjects read a food diary attributed to a male or female target who was portrayed as eating either a small breakfast and lunch or a large breakfast and lunch. Consistent with the hypothesis that amount eaten would more strongly affect subjects' inferences about the female target, ratings of the male target were not differentially influenced by the meal size manipulation. In contrast, subjects considered the female target who ate smaller meals to be significantly more feminine, less masculine, more concerned about her appearance, better looking, and more likely to possess stereotypically feminine personality traits. (Chaiken & Pliner, 1987)

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- Allen-O''Donnell, M., Cottingham, M. D. Nowak, T. C. & Snyder, K. A. (2011). Impact of Group Settings and Gender on Meals Purchased by College Students, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 41(9), 2268-2283.
- Chaiken, S. & Pliner, P. (1987). Women, but not Men, Are What They Eat: The Effect of Meal Size and Gender on Perceived Femininity and Masculinity, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 13(2), link
- Kniffin, K. M., Sigirci, O. & Wansink, B. (2016). Eating Heavily: Men Eat More in the Compnay of Women. Evolutionary Pschological Science, 2, 38-46.
- Young, M. E., Mizzau, M., Mai, N. T., Sirisegaram, A. & Wilson, M. (2009). Food for thought. What you eat depends on your sex and eating companions. Appetite, 53(2), link
- photograph (Penny Anderson and her mother, 1971, (c) The Ann Arbor News) via

Sugary Drink Consumption & Ethnicity

In 2013, a campaign was launched in the United States, to reduce sugary drink consumption aiming to fight child obesity. From 2012 to 2017, 13.000 middle school students were surveyed about their consumption of sugary drinks (soda, fruit drinks, sport drinks, energy drinks, flavoured waters and teas). Ethnicity and neighbourhood environment (number of unhealthy food retailers close to their schools) were also collected.

While, generally speaking, the percentage of students consuming sugary drinks on a daily basis had dropped from 2012 (49%) to 2017 (37%), daily sugary drink consumption remained higher among Black (59%) and Hispanic (49%) students compare to white (33%) and Asian ((23%) students. 

According to previous research, Black and Hispanic youth are targets of marketing campaigns. Ethnicity and neigbourhood food environments need to be considered when addressing sugary drink consumption since structural racism in the built environment can play a major role in terms of young people's drinking behaviour (via).

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photograph (New York, 1980s) via

US-Americans and the Death of Home Cooking

According to the Economic Research Service's Adult Eating & Health Module (EHM) study carried out over two three-year periods (2006-2008 and 2014-2016), US-Americans spend less time eating and drinking as a primary activity (decrease by 5%) than they did ten years ago. The amount of time spent eating as a secondary activity, i.e., eating while engaged in another activity, has not changed much. Education - directly or indirectly - has an impact on the amount of time dedicated to eating. Those with more than a bachelor's degree spent 18% more time eating and drinking as a primary activity than those with less education. The data collected also showed an increase in prepared food purchases (via).

After the pandemic, spending at restaurants and food-service providers (excluding grocery stores) returned to what was perceived as normal before. The percentage of US-Americans spending money on eating out vs cooking and eating at home swelled to 53.2. (via)

Based on time-use surveys carried out in France and the US, Maria Pleszz and Fabrice Etilé come to the conclusion that both people in the US and in France spent about 15 to 20 minutes less time cooking and eating at home in 2010 than they did in 1985, however, for different reasons. In France, the decrease was mainly due to a drop in eating time while the time spent cooking had remained relatively stable. According to the authors, the time drop in France was mainly caused by an increase in smaller households. In the US, the drop was explained with people spending less time making meals (via).

For some Americans, going out to dinner is a treat, planned and budgeted for. For others, it’s just another Tuesday night. And Wednesday. And Thursday. 
And that second group of people is becoming the majority. The number of Americans who enjoy cooking is declining, while the prevalence of food delivery startups, and culinary-centric television shows grows. (via)

The importance or non-impartance of food is surely culture-bound. Compared to other nationas, US-Americans only spend a small portion of their household income on food (via) and, again in comparison, spend little time on cooking (via). The early introduction of fast food as an acceptable alternative to real meals, their consumption portrayed in movies, and TV characters throwing away food easily might be further contributors to the message that food is nothing to think about much.

Eddie Yoon gathered data over two decades. In his first survey, he found three groups of US-Americans: 15% saying the love cooking, 50% saying they hate it and 35% being ambivalent about it. 15 years later the percentages had shifted, not necessarily for the better: 10% loved cooking, 45% hated it, 45% were indifferent or liked to sometimes cook, In other words, 90% are not really fond of cooking (via). Grocery shopping and cooking are shifting to a niche activity (via).

(...) our fondness for Food TV has inspired us to watch more Food TV, and to want to eat more, but hasn’t increased our desire to cook. (via)

Monsiavais et al. (2014) carried out a study on time use. The authors stratified the sample into those who a) spent less than an hour a day on food preparation and cleanup, b) one to two hours a day, and c) more than two hours a day. Those who spent the least amount of time on food preparation were working adults with a strong focus on convenience. Time spent on food preparation positively correlated with diet quality (more vegetables, salads, fruits, and fruit juices). Spending less than an hour a day on food preparation meant spending more money on food outside home and using fast food "restaurants" more often: "The per-person expenditure in the lowest time-use group was >$22/week whereas that in the highest group was approximately $15/week". 

Surveys show that the time US-Americans spend on cooking has decreased substantially since the 1960s, i.e., to an average of 33 minutes per day for food preparation and cleanup. Lack of time is mentioned as one reason but surely only explains part of the situation (Monsiavais et al., 2014).

A survey from 2019 found that 41.43% of US-Americans preferred to spend less than 30 minutes cooking a weeknight meal, 50.17% found it acceptable to spend between 30 and 60 minutes, 8.4% were happy to spend more than an hour on it (via).

- Monsivais, P., Aggarwal, A. & Drewnowski, A. (2014). Time Spent on Home Food Preparation and Indicators of Healthy Eating. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 47(6), 796-802.
- photographs of Marilyn Monroe eating hot dogs with Arthur Miller in New York, 1957, taken by Sam Shaw via 

Awkward Puppets: Drive Through

Diego: "Let me do a double cheeseburger with fries and a coke, please."
Voice: "Great, so that's one taco and guacamole and coconut water. Anything else?"

::: Awkward Puppets, Drive Through: WATCH/LISTEN

i

image via

Ice cream preference: gender differences in taste and quality

Abstract: 69 college women showed a preference for expensive ice cream while 53 college men preferred the less expensive ice cream. Analysis indicates the taste for more expensive ice cream is linked to gender, but it is not clear whether this is learned or not. (Kunz, 1993)

- Kunz, J. (1993). Ice cream preference: gender differences in taste and quality, Perceptual Motor Skills, 77, link
- photograph by Martin Parr via

Spaghetti Italienne

(...) Italians arived in an America that was at best ambiguous about their food habits. On the one hand, in the 1890s the eating habits of wealthier Americans were being influenced by the latest trends in England, whose fancy hotels and country-house kitchens were again being invaded by "Contintental" chefs, usually bearing recipes from French haute cuisine. Upper-class American hotels, restaurants, and clubs shifted away from the overwhelmingly "American" and English dishes and meals that had previously characterized their menus. By the turn of the century "Spaghetti Italienne" had joined the extensive choice of American and French items. It was usually served as one of the first courses, along with or instead of chicken livers, sweetbreas, or other relatively light items. But the Italian invasion of elite dining rooms at around this time appears to have halte with spaghetti.

(...) the fact that the character of Italian immigration into America had changed markedly in the previous twenty years must also have discouraged thoughts of popularizing Italian food among the upper crust. Before 1880 the relatively few Italian immigrants to America had often been skille people from the north of Italy who were relatively acceptable by native-born White Anglo-Saxon Protestant standards. By 1901, however, as the deluge of unskilled and poverty-stricken immigrants from the Mezzogiorno struck America's cities, Italy no longer merely connoted Rennaissance palaces and happy gondoliers on the native-born mind. More immediate were images of swarthy immigrants in teeming tenements: sewer diggers, railroad navvies, crime, violence, and the dreaded cutthroats of the "Black Hand." Spaghetti could stay on the menu, but only as "Italienne", the French spelling bringing some reassurance that the original Italian dish had been civilized and purified in French hands. (Levenstein, 1985:77)

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- Levenstein, H. (1985). The American Response to Italian Food, 1880-1930. Food and Foodways, 75-90.
- photograph via

Sweet Snacks + Gender

Abstract: This paper reports a study of gender differences in the components of the Theory of Reasoned Action in relation to eating sweet snacks, and the role of these components in predicting sweet-snacking in women and men. Totals of 65 women and 64 men completed questionnaires assessing attitudes and behaviours towards eating sweet snacks. Women were more ambivalent towards eating sweet snacks than men, perceiving eating sweet snacks to be significantly less healthy (...) and more pleasant (...).

 

There were no statistically significant gender differences in outcome beliefs×evaluations, subjective norms, normative belief×motivation to comply, or in behavioural intention, although some gender differences were found within components. Women scored significantly higher (...) on restraint items from the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire, including those on snacking (...), but did not differ significantly from men on reported frequency of eating sweet snacks. There were gender differences in the predictive power of components of the Theory of Reasoned Action. Women's intentions to eat sweet snacks were predicted by perceived social pressure and attitudes towards sweet snacks. Men's intentions were only predicted significantly by attitudes. It is concluded that men's sweet-snacking is less influenced by social pressure than is women's.  (Grogan, Bell & Conner, 1997)

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- Grogan, S. C., Bell, R. & Conner, M. (1997). Eating Sweet Snacks: Gender Differences in Attitudes and Behaviour. Appetite, 28(1), 19-31, link
- photograph of Shelley Duvall, 1970 via

Doing Gender in Coffee Shops

"Overall my observations confirmed my assumption that the majority of customers frequenting Coffee Corps displayed either hegemonic masculinity or emphasized femininity (Connell 1987). However, the focus of my research was to identify gender maneuvering strategies (Schippers 2002), therefore the results of this study suggest that many individuals performed gender displays which differed from their perceived primary gender expression to varying degrees...



...These displays often seemed to reify hegemonic masculinity when enacted by individuals displaying an overall masculine or feminine gender display, and conversely a few individuals appeared to challenge the gender hierarchy through a display of an alternative femininity. Examples of gender maneuvering were often observed in the interactions of mixed-gender dyads in which individuals attempted to access masculine cultural capital through a temporary display of hegemonic masculinity or emphasized femininity." 
McClean, 2014 

"The way in which customers interact with employees shapes and reinforces present notions of gender. Many of my coworkers are verbal about their under-standing of male and female gender performances. At times, they were quick to assume passivity or compliance from female customers regardless of their engagement with emphasized fem-ininity as well as assumed assertiveness and confidence in men regardless of the performances of hegemonic masculinity. In es-sence, they were quick to essentialize male and female behavior based on the traditional gender performances that took place at The Coffee House. Therefore, traditional gender performances were also upheld by my coworkers through their narratives of essentialist gender differences." 

Limbourg, 2003

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- Limbourg, A. (2003). Large Americano, Extra Masculine: How People Do Gender at the Coffee House. Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography, 3(2), link
-McClean, J. (2014). Gender Maneuvering over Coffee: Doing Gender through Displays of Hegemonic Masculinity and Alternative Femininity. Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography, 4(2), 19-31.
- photograph by Saul Leiter via

Dude Food

One of the things that defines dude food is this carefree, limitless way of eating that doesn't take into account moderation, common dietary nutritional advice; that it often maps onto stereotypical assumptions about foods that are masculine, masculine appetites, flavors and ways of eating and thinking about food that map onto these limitless, voracious, seeking satisfaction ways of eating. So, when you look at ˜dude' as a concept, as a linguistic term, it can definitely map onto men and to women, to masculinity and femininity. But dude food in particular gives us often very regressive, sort of stagnant definitions of how to be a real man.

One of the cookbooks I'm looking at, literally titled Dude Food, is the only cookbook I've ever seen where there are pictures of men just being dudes (...) and the only picture in the book of a woman is a woman without her top lying on her belly in bed with a lover. So the only way that women are configured into the recipes for dude food are as ways to be able to get women in bed and to be able to satisfy all of their appetites. It definitely maps onto these ideas about gender that have significant effects for how we think about gender equality and justice in the United States. Emily Contois

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image of the great Michel Piccoli via

Pudding. Of course. If you are a female assistant vice president.

The "congratulations dear, but exactly what does an assistant vice president do?" Pudding.



image via 

International No Diet Day. An Abstract.

"This study investigated how people’s attitudes and motivations towards losing weight are influenced by societal pressures surrounding weight loss, their interaction with the obesogenic environment and individuals’ attitudes and motivations towards weight. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 10 women currently attending commercial weight-loss programmes. Participants experienced conflicting messages regarding weight norms, with the media portraying powerful social norms relating to thinness and beauty, and changes to the food environment and interactions with family and friends commonly undermining weight-loss activities and promoting increased consumption. Providing social and environmental support for the behaviours needed to produce weight loss may need to be a primary focus for obesity policy." (Whale, Gillison & Smith, 2014)



- Whale, K., Gillison, F. & Smith, P. (2014). "Are you still on that stupid diet?" Women’s experiences of societal pressure and support regarding weight loss, and attitudes towards health policy intervention. Journal of Health Psychology, 19(12), 1536-1546.
- photograph by Harry Meerson via

International No Diet Day

International No Diet Day is "a day for organizations and individuals to push back against the industries and messages that encourage us to engage in dangerous dieting behaviours.
According to a 2002 survey, 28% of girls in grade 9 and 29% in grade 10 engaged in weight-loss behaviours. In addition, 30% of girls and 24% of boys in grades 7-12 reported teasing about their weight. From a young age we are faced with harmful messages that influence the way that we feel about our own and others’ bodies, and these messages only intensify as we become adults." (literally via)



At the heart of International No Diet Day is the celebration of body acceptance. In a society that is fixated on appearance and size, this day helps us refocus on what is truly important – a healthy lifestyle and self love.
In celebrating International No Diet Day, participants are encouraged to:
• Challenge the idea of one “right” body shape and embrace body diversity.
• Declare a day free of dieting and obsessions about weight and shape.
• Learn the facts about the diet industry and understand the inefficacy of commercial diets.
• Help end weight discrimination, sizeism and fat phobia.
In a world that is obsessed with losing weight and that celebrates excessive exercise and yoyo dieting, how do we change and challenge our current way of thinking? (more/literally via)



- An Apology Letter to My Body: READ
- photographs of Doris Day via and via, copyright by respective owners

Quoting Anthony Bourdain

"Look, I never wanted to be part of bro culture. I was always embarrassed. If I ever found myself, and I mean going way back, with a group of guys and they started leering at women or making, “Hey, look at her. Nice rack,” I was always, I was so uncomfortable. It just felt, it wasn’t an ethical thing; it was that I felt uncomfortable and ashamed to be a man and I felt that everybody involved in this equation was demeaned by the experience. I was demeaned by standing there next to things like this. They were demeaned for behaving like this. It’s like sitting at a table with somebody who’s rude to a waiter. I don’t want to be with someone like that.
(...) People actually used the word macho around me. And this was such a mortifying accusation that I didn’t even understand it."
Anthony Bourdain (1956-2018)




::: Anthony Bourdain in Iran: WATCH
::: Anthony Bourdain in Rome: WATCH



"The fact that over 50 per cent of the residents of Toronto are not from Canada, that is always a good thing, creatively, and for food especially. That is easily a city's biggest strength, and it is Toronto's unique strength."
Anthony Bourdain



"More than half of my team is Hispanic, as are many of our guests. And, as a proud Spanish immigrant and recently naturalized American citizen myself, I believe that every human being deserves respect, regardless of immigration status."
Anthony Bourdain



photographs via and via and via and  via

Lamb Side Story

Meat & Livestock Australia's adverstising campaign "Lamb Side Story" has the message that no matter how different opinions of the left and the right are, Australians will never lamb alone.



"Under the banner of You Never Lamb Alone we’ve delivered campaigns that celebrate unity and inclusivity, whilst pushing the creative boundaries and this summer is no different. Our latest campaign takes a satirical look at the diversity of modern Australia and celebrates our nation’s ability to put aside our differences, no matter our cultural backgrounds or political leanings, and join together over a delicious lamb BBQ.” 
Lisa Sharp

“Lamb as a brand stands for unity and this latest campaign shines a light on what unites us rather than divides us. In true Aussie spirit we are celebrating our nation’s ability to put aside our differences and join together over our love of lamb, the meat that brings everyone to the table.”
Lisa Sharp

“Lamb Side Story proves that both extremes of global political views can be fun – there’s nothing like lamb and dancing to bring people with various levels of outrage together.”
Scott Nowell


Image via

Narrative images: Food in Segregated South Africa

"This is a photograph of a butcher shop in Johannesburg, South Africa, taken in May, 1965. They advertise second grade meat, which is sold at a lesser price, bought mostly by the black Africans and servants. (AP Photo/Royle)." (via)



"“Servant’s rations”, the “servant’s blankets”, the “servant’s crockery” were synonymous with second hand or cheap products of low-grade quality. Typically, for food “she was given bread, tea, jam and mielie-meal and occasionally managed to steal a piece of meat out of the cooking pot when she was cooking stew” (Cock, 1984, p. 34). Alternatively “servants rations consisted of inferior food and often include stale, rotten or simply ‘left-over food’ which the employer considered unsuitable for her own family’s consumption” (p. 27)."

"Often the domestic worker received part of her payment in kind (accommodation, food, old clothes etc.).
(...)
Offering old clothes, old furniture and leftover food with no expectation of return “places the recipient in the position of a child or a beggar, being too poor, too young or too low in social status to be able to participate in the system of exchanges which mark the social boundaries of the donor’s group” (Whisson & Weil, 1971, p. 43). Quite simply employers bestowed a gift in order to assert their dominance and their possession of the servant."

"I do remember being embarrassed at the way my parents treated Beauty e.g. her living conditions and she didn’t eat off the same crockery and the general food that she was given, the kind of tinned pilchards and tomato sauce scenario and being decidedly uncomfortable with that……my father would have been quite sympathetic on an abstract level but he wouldn’t have been willing to do anything about it”."
Goldman, 2003

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- Goldman, S. (2003). White Boyhood under Apartheid: The Experience of Being Looked After by a Black Nanny. Doctoral thesis: University of Pretoria
- photograph via

Bacon & God's Wrath

Sol Friedman's beautiful, wonderful, fantastic documentary "Bacon & God's Wrath" is about Razie Brownstone, an impressive Jewish woman who is about to turn ninety, who had a strict religious upbringing, who became an atheist (she prefers the term non-believer) after discovering the internet two years ago and who is going to eat bacon for the very first time. Award-winning animator and filmmaker Friedman has blended live-action and animation techniques in his short documentary (via and via).

"Faith. In some ways it is like believing in ghosts or Santa or the tooth fairy." Razie

And when did you come to learn that?

"Well, I wished that my story was a bit more interesting. Like if I had questioned God about suffering a tragic loss or wrestled after accepting my son being gay. But my adult life hasn't been that interesting. It was simple and nice (...). And then two years ago I started using the internet." Razie

So, Razie, how was it (eating bacon)?

"Seemed perfectly OK. I was not stricken down by a heavy arm of the Lord. I seem to have survived fine. And I didn't throw up." Razie

Here the 8-minute documentary:



image via

"Most husbands, nowadays, have stopped beating their wives, but what can be more agonizing to a sensitive soul than a man's boredom at meals."

The things women have to put up with. Most husbands, nowadays, have stopped beating their wives, but what can be more agonizing to a sensitive soul than a man's boredom at meals. Yet, lady, there must be a reason. If your cooking and not your conversation is monotonous, that's easily fixed. Start using soups more often, with lighter, more varied dishes to follow. Heinz makes 18 varieties. You can serve a different one every day for three weeks. Use them in your cooking too, and strike some new flavours that will lift ordinary dishes out of the commonplace.



Image (National Home Monthly, January 1950) via

Expo Milano 2015

"Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" is the theme of  Expo Milano 2015. Why this choice? About 870 million people are undernourished, about 1.3 billion tons of foods are wasted every year.
The site of Expo Milano comprises an area of 1.1 million square metres, an exposition garden with more than 12.000 trees, a canal and two wide avenues with the pavillions of the participating countries. There are also four thematic areas and nine Clusters (for countries that do not have their own pavillions) which bring together countries that have a relationship with a specific food (e.g. rice, coffee) (via). 145 countries and three international organisations (United Nations, European Union, Caribbean Community) are the offiicial participants. In addition, civil society organisations and representatives of the corporate world participate (via). In case you are interested, there are a great many live shows so it could be a good idea to check the schedule before going to Milan.



"When talking about hunger, the only acceptable number is zero."
United Nations

The theme for the United Nations' participation in Expo Milano is "The Zero Hunger Challenge. United for a Sustainable World". In 2012, the UN launched the "Zero Hunger Challenge" aiming to create a world free from hunger (via).



"In many countires (sic), women represent the backbone of the agricultural sector and food systems and make up the bulk of the work force in the primary sector. Women also play a key role in guaranteeing food security for the whole family: when women suffer from hunger and malnutrition, so do their children. Over 19 million children are born underweight each year. This is often a consequence of their mothers’ inadequate nutrition before and during pregnancy. Despite this, around 60 per cent of those who suffer from chronic hunger are women. This is due to the fact that women often do not have equal access to resources, education and income generation along with having a minor role in decision-making." (literally via UN Expo Milano 2015)



"Despite the fact that women play a key role in agriculture, livestock and fishery activities worldwide, many of them have unequal access to land, financial services, education, training, extension services, markets, decision making processes and technology. Promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality is crucial to winning the Zero Hunger Challenge: if women were to have the same access to productive resources and investment and income opportunities as men, productivity and family income would increase significantly and nutrition and health would improve at the household level. Evidence also shows that increasing women’s access to education and improving their overall welfare can have a major impact on their own nutrition status and that of their children." (literally via UN Expo Milano 2015)



photographs by Gianni Berengo Gardin via and via and via and via