Food Glorious Food
The Food Glorious Food research project is specifically focussed on the use of food in community groups that support people living with dementia: whether that’s eating and drinking – at meal times, bringing food to share or having snacks together – or activities involving food such as cooking, baking or preparing food together, or even shopping, growing vegetables or discussing food.
The reason we are looking at this is because we know that:
A) There can be real benefits from including food in what a community group does – from encouraging people to come along and helping everyone socialise, to making group meetings more enjoyable and making people feel more included, to having a positive effect on health and wellbeing, to helping people to continue to participate in preparing food and eating together socially. It can also be a way to recognise and celebrate people’s culture and background – and beyond this, in many cultures food is central to socialising, a point which community groups aiming to encourage social inclusion should not ignore. Food is not just about getting enough to eat. Food can be important to how we live our lives, see ourselves and interact with other people. It can provide comfort and joy for many. Preparing and eating meals together can be a chance to spend time with people, have fun and use different skills. As well as giving people something good to eat, these opportunities can encourage people to go along to groups that might support them and help overcome some of the stigma around dementia.
BUT
B) Involving food in community group activities can be challenging, in various ways for various people. Many living with dementia find that their appetite is affected and they may also find eating and drinking more challenging than they used to, in one way or another. For those organising and running community groups, offering food can be fraught with difficulties, from food hygiene regulations, to cost, to having the staff, volunteers or facilities to do it. In addition, it can be hard to get right. Food choices can be very personal and if what’s on offer isn’t what people want or like or feel comfortable with, it can put people off coming rather than encouraging them. Some community groups may think twice about providing food and miss out on the possible benefits.
While we’re aware of the above issues from our long-standing work with community groups supporting people with dementia, we don’t know a lot in depth or in detail – the vast majority of research into the experience of food activities, eating and meal times with people living with dementia has focussed on institutional settings such as care homes and hospitals, not with support groups in the community. The majority of research has also focussed upon nutrition and physical health (i.e. how to get people to eat and to eat healthily) rather than what we call the ‘psycho-social’ benefits of food (i.e. helping people’s wellbeing and helping them live well and stay connected to others). Hence this study will look at this. We want to learn about the benefits and difficulties of doing things such as providing meals and snacks or preparing food together. In our previous work (for example with Meeting Centres) this topic has often been raised, both by people attending groups and by staff and volunteers.
In the Food Glorious Food project we are working with colleagues from Cardiff University, University of Wolverhampton, University of Oxford and the 3 Nations Dementia Working Group. We will go along to six different community groups attended by people living with dementia and those that care for them. We are working with Meeting Centres and Dementia Cafes in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, South Asian community groups in the West Midlands and a community group serving residents of both African and African Caribbean heritage and South Asian heritage in an area of London. We will see what they do in each group and talk to a range of people there about their experiences with food and food-based activities. We will also work with some people in each group to understand their individual experience of food and social eating. We will then use what they tell us to find out why things do or don’t work for people in different circumstances.
As usual, members of the public will be involved in this project from start to finish. A group of experts by experience, including people living with dementia, family carers, community providers and academics will provide guidance throughout. At the end we want to produce a range of guidance materials on how best to approach involving food in community groups that support people living with dementia.