Eating Rough: Food Sources and Acquisition Practices of Homeless Young People in Adelaide, South Australia

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the food sources and acquisition practices used by homeless youth in Adelaide. This work is part of a larger study that aimed to examine the extent and nature of food insecurity among homeless youth.

Design: Cross-sectional design involving quantitative and qualitative methods.

Setting: Four health and welfare inner-city agencies serving homeless youth in Adelaide, South Australia.

Subjects: A sample of 150 homeless youth aged between 15 and 24 years recruited from these agencies. Fifteen were selected via snowball sampling for interview.

Results: Use of welfare food sources was high (63%). Food from welfare agencies was supplemented by unorthodox food acquisition methods such as theft (65%), begging for money for food (61%), begging for food items (44%) and asking for help from friends and relatives (34%). Reasons given for non-usage of welfare food services included affordability, access, being too busy, shame or embarrassment.

Conclusions: Food insecurity is a salient issue for some homeless youth in Adelaide. Clarifying food acquisition practices of food-insecure homeless youth is essential for rational planning and improvement of food-related services to meet their needs. Such an understanding also underpins the development of broader public policy responses that improve individual and household skills and resources to acquire food and ensure food security. Nutrition professionals, welfare professionals and policy-makers need to work sensitively with welfare food agencies and others to improve food access and food security for homeless youth.