Spinning Plates: An exploration of the interlinkages between food literacy and food insecurity within the context of extended food aid interventions

Where food literacy is promoted as a vehicle for improved resilience, this thesis explores how food insecurity intersects with it. Motivated by the persistence and deepening of poverty and food insecurity within the United Kingdom, this research addresses a critical gap in the literature: the lack of qualitative, multi-stakeholder studies that connect food literacy to the lived experiences of food insecurity. This study aims to understand how food insecurity impacts the acquisition and application of food literacy and how extended food aid interventions support or hinder this process. Guided by a social constructivist and interpretivist methodology, the research employs qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews, focus groups, conversations, and observations with 40 stakeholders and beneficiaries across diverse UK settings. The theoretical foundations draw upon poverty and social exclusion theories, challenging deficit-based narratives that frame food insecurity as an individual failing. Findings reveal that whilst most beneficiaries possess a degree of functional food literacy, structural barriers such as affordability, access, and other socioeconomic constraints limit its application. Heuristic factors, including adaptive strategies for sourcing and managing food, emerge as critical components of food literacy. This thesis proposes a novel framework encompassing intrinsic, heuristic, and extrinsic factors of food literacy, with food insecurity acting as a barrier between layers. Extended food aid interventions offer social and cultural benefits but often replicate power imbalances and risk contributing to moral injury amongst practitioners. The research concludes that food literacy must be understood as socially and culturally embedded, and that interventions must move beyond solely skills-based approaches. Policy reform is called for with improved safeguarding for practitioners and a reassertion of state responsibility in ensuring the right to food. These insights offer practical implications for intervention design, policy development, and future research.