FOOD/HEALTH/ MIGRATION
INTERVIEW INSIGHTS.
I conducted a total of four interviews for this research project. All subjects claimed to have US citizen status and were children of parents of immigrant background. The ethnicities that they claimed to have are, respectfully, African-American, Filipino-American, Black/Puerto Rican/Caribbean, and Hispanic. The interview time range was from 14 to 35 minutes total, and all interviews took place on Lehman College campus. Half of the subjects identified as she/her, the other half identified as he/him. All interview subjects commute to Lehman College as well as outside of Lehman College. All of them live in the Bronx or on the mainland of New York.
Each interview provided introspective insights. There were trends that were shared by all interviewees. Here are the conclusions that I have accumulated from analyzing and dissecting these interviews:
- Awareness of health, body image, and financial security is high among these subjects.
- Food access constrains food choices, particularly in the Bronx including Lehman College campus. This can lead to an imbalanced diet or nutritional deficiencies. For those who attend college or work all day, this poses to be a huge alarm:
- H: "...luckily I'm in a position where this office [her work site on campus] does provide snacks for students and also for us when we are hungry and need kind of that energy boost but it's not like it's accessible food... snacks are not in the budget so a lot of the times when there's snacks in this office we have to provide it ourselves [with our] own money....and even then let's say you wanted like organic food from like a farmers market you have to essentially leave the Bronx."
- M: "Do you consider your diet to be balanced nutritionally?"
H: "I feel like I feel no because of my lifestyle. Being a college student commuting every day here till 10:00 p.m."
- Food choices do affect one's health in both positive and negative ways.
- Financial security does influence food choices:
- B: "For sure, for sure. If you’ve got money you can do whatever. I feel like if I could afford you know to eat more healthy I would eat more healthy. It’s more expensive to eat healthy, I think so."
- C: "I guess there was a time where I didn’t have a debit or a credit card, so I used to forget like cash a lot. So whenever I didn’t have cash I just wouldn’t eat for the whole day. Or I would take the train as fast as I can so I could go home to eat."
- H: "Yes, very much because the best food, the best quality of food you have to spend so much money for, and not everybody can just afford to eat the best food."
- J: "Definitely, for sure. Because I mean if you know how to I don't want to say shop correctly but if you can really shop in terms of groceries in a very smart way you could get anything that's primarily considered very healthy for in like a low price range, but often at times you can have stores like Whole Foods and stuff charged very high for certain things. It's more about trying to find where you can buy something at a certain price; however, it definitely does affect because when you're not on a budget when you're grocery shopping I'm very sure people can just throw things on their cart and not have to look at a price but when you're on a budget you're going to have to at least look at it."
- Programs such as food stamps and SNAP may provide major benefits, so improving accessibility to these benefits is essential:
- B: "… we really couldn’t eat out, so I felt like that was the least secure but at the same time I feel like the government really helped out with that food stamps because we were able I was able to eat a lot of cold sandwiches they offered that a lot of groceries I got so at the same time while I wasn’t secure as far as spending power what they provided for us I think was a little bit of both."
- The definition of health focuses on the physical components as well as dietary choices for C and B, whereas for H and J, health is a "trifecta" of mental, emotional, and physical health. "You need to make sure every section of yourself is healthy whether it be your physical being, your mental being, or your emotional being." -H
- The American food culture poses to be dangerous due to its promotion of food that is known to negatively influence one's health, thus leading to health problems such as obesity, diabetes, etc. The Bronx is known to have high rates of these health issues.
- B: "There was a time where I worked at Shake Shack [an American chain restaurant] and I used to eat that shit... I used to eat that shit all the time and high blood pressure and the salt that runs in my family I noticed there was a point in my life where I would get up or sometimes … my head would start to spin and I was like, bro I’m like 20, I can’t be doing this, I immediately stopped eating Shake Shack."
- C: "I think the standards in America are so low, they probably you know because there’s a lot of… I think the standards for American health wise the obesity rates and stuff like that are so high here… being unhealthy is the norm here."
- Doctors do tend to focus more on the physical aspects when evaluating the subjects' health, such as BMI, family health history, and weight, but B has noted that his visits to the doctor include a mental health assessment. This is encouraging since it reveals that the negative stigma around mental health may finally be dissolving; however, doctors' personal and cultural bias may influence the way they interpret their patients' health:
- C: "I don’t think Filipinos are very good with mental issues they just don’t get it it’s something you don’t talk about in Filipino culture so I feel like growing up all my doctor appointments have been very physical. I’ve been thinking about like the physicalities with the body, nothing really mental. Yeah, I was never really asked anything about mental before, I think. Not in my doctor appointments."
- There is more pressure on those who identify as women (C and H) regarding body image and body standards.
- J and B, both identifying as males, do see there are issues with Western idealizations of the human body, but J notes how the "self-love" movement has been on the rise. B notes this: "As far as Western, I feel like a lot of Western culture is focused on this ideal body shape and we really I don’t want to go as far as to say fetishize it but there’s definitely a beauty standard and people try to … beauty so a lot of it is the community."
- J and B seem to come from more accepting families and are not as affected by their family's perception of their bodies compared to C and H. C and H both note their individual cultures' beauty and body preferences.
- In C's case, when it comes to body image values, Filipinos value thinness yet try to discourage dieting and working out, which can both be used in a healthy manner.
- H: "I feel like the [body image] standard just kind of really bad at right now to women... So I would say it really depends on your family and how long they've really been in the Western society... technically my parents are both from Western countries but yeah specifically in America like there is a standard of what is beauty and then if your parents live there all their lives, it does become second nature to them, and then that's what they're trying to pass. They're gonna pass onto the next generation, even though culturally that's not right."
- There is an extreme emphasis on exercise culture within Western society which can lead to unrealistic expectations related to body image, such as eating disorders within the athletic world (J) or an obsession with working out (C).
- J: "But his [his coach's] eating disorder was not eating he would throw up a lot so but for sure there's plenty of athletes that will overeat a lot because of stress or others that will starve themselves because they think being lighter will get them faster..."
- Acculturation affects one's eating habits, and potentially one's feelings about their culture's traditional cuisine. Acculturation is assimilation to the host culture or society. In this case, all subjects are exposed to New York City's ethnically diverse food scene.
- C: "So my mom came to America when she was about 22. So I think she became more American rather than more Filipino. Besides the food which my grandma cooks I think we do a lot of American things rather than Filipino things."
M: "What’s considered Filipino things?"
C: "Maybe like activities probably food. I don’t speak my parents dialect, that’s one thing. We eat a good amount of Filipino food my grandma cooks. We don’t really act Filipino, or we don’t really... yeah."
- C: "So my mom came to America when she was about 22. So I think she became more American rather than more Filipino. Besides the food which my grandma cooks I think we do a lot of American things rather than Filipino things."
- One's commuting schedule may disrupt one's eating patterns, which affects one's health in a multitude of ways. This is concerning since the majority of New Yorkers rely on public transportation, especially the trains and the buses. This can also be due to the fact that New York City's culture is that of a hustle-and-bustle scene, as in people are always on the go instead of sitting down and taking the time to eat. Emotions can also dictate one's eating habits:
- C: "I think I always eat around my work schedule, whenever I’m free, there’s no work in the morning, so then I eat and then work and then break and then eat and then I commute and... sometimes I don’t even have enough time to eat in between the work... Commuting to Brooklyn has been very stressful. Or just traveling from borough to borough every week has been getting to me... Going back home from Brooklyn all the way to home I have to take the train and then I have to take the bus so I think every day I’ve just been feeling very tired. All I want to do when I get home is sleep: I don’t have any energy... so I tend to skip a lot of meals or sometimes I’m too tired or stressed that I don’t feel like eating."
- M: "Okay do you eat on your commute?"
H: "No, oh well I guess yes. Coming to school usually because I didn't sleep maybe enough I wake up late and I have to rush, even this morning I wrapped two pieces of bread that my dad made 'cuz my dad makes bread... and I'm walking to the bus, I'm just eating bread, because I live about a 15-minute walk from the so I live it in the suburbs and then I have to walk to the village to catch it to a bus out yeah so I'm usually on that walk I'm eating food, my breakfast."
- The more convenient one's location is, the less stress there is, which positively influences one's health:
- J: "So, since my school is very close to home, if I get lazy I'll take public transportation but most of the time I walk. My workplace at the moment is also walking distance so everything is very convenient for me which is the reason why I would say it's like really laid-back."
DATA REPORT FINDINGS.
The final findings of the Google Survey form are:
- Age range: 52.9% are 18-21 years old. Following that, 35.3% are within the 21-25 years old range, 11.8% are 25-30 years old. 0% for the 30+ years old group.
- Gender: 70.6% of the survey takers are female.
- Ethnicity: Among the highest percentage groups, Blacks, Latino/Latinx peoples, African-Americans, and Dominicans, respectively, make up the majority of the survey takers. This confirms the fact that the Bronx is home to an ethnically diverse population.
- More than 50% stated the US was their country of birth.
- Regarding those who did not list the US as their birth country, 18.2% of the survey takers listed 12 as the age they were when they came to the US.
- There was a 50/50 percentage for the question, "Do you live in the bronx? Yes/no". This reveals that half of the sample size are commuters.
- About 40% of survey takers were juniors. Sophomore and senior were tied.
- 85.3%, or 29/34 survey takers, were full-time students. 19/34, or 55.9%, were employed. This reveals that the survey takers had responsibilities outside of school.
- More than half of the survey taker population worked 15-20+ hours.
- 94.1% responded "Yes" to the "Do you commute?" question.
- The total amount of commuting time spent in a day was tied between 2 hours and 4 hours (28.1%), which were the top two choices.
- 61.3% commute during early morning or late night.
- 57.6% responded "No" and 36.4% responded "Sometimes" to the question, "Do you eat while you commute?" This is startling since those with longer commuting times have a higher risk of missing meals if they do not claim to eat while commuting, thus contributing to inconsistent eating patterns which can impact their quality of life.
- The former statement is proven to be true since 48.5% responded "Yes" to the question, "Is your eating schedule affected by your commute?'
- Breakfast, followed by lunch and dinner, is claimed to be the meal that's most affected by one's personal commuting schedule.
- 38.2%, the highest percentage, of survey takers answered "Sometimes true" to the question, "In the last 30 days, I couldn't afford to eat balanced meals." This is an alarming finding, and it addresses the need to build a strong support network related to food availability and accessibility, starting on campus.
- The highest percentage, 58.8%, claimed "No" in regards to the question that concerns financial stability with the ability to purchase food; however, 26.5% of the survey takers said "Yes" whereas the choice "Maybe" was met with a 14.7%, which totals up to 41.2%.
- 52.9% claim to eat about 2 meals on average. This may be viewed as alarming by health organizations if they advocate eating 3 meals a day in order to lead a healthy, sustainable life style.
- 32-35.3% of survey takers claimed to sometimes or occasionally eat fast food, while 17.6% claim to regularly consume eat fast food. This is hopeful since it reveals that, at least, Lehman students are conscious of their food choices. One question to follow up with is whether or not the cafeteria food choices influence their diets considering the current campus food choices tend to lean towards fast food.
- 91.2% do not use SNAP or food stamps, 85.3% have never visited the Lehman Food Pantry (this could be due to its semi-private location), and 97.1% do not visit a food pantry. While we cannot determine why this may be the case for both responses, we can wonder if these results are due to the survey takers' lack of awareness of available resources on campus (i.e., Lehman Food Pantry) or in the neighborhood they're from or of the existing food pantries and food markets in their respectful areas, due to a lack of public advertising of these resources, due to barriers that serve as an obstacle(s) for those interested in gaining access to these resources, etc. There are unlimited theories we could come up with based on this finding.
- 44.1% have rated their overall health as 4, the highest percentage. 8.8% for both 2 and 5. So, based on this, Lehman College students view their overall health as average or above average.
- The majority have tried to lose weight over the past year (58.8%).
- 44.1% have claimed to be often happy with their body image, and 35.3% have claimed to be sometimes happy with their body image.
- 44.1% have claimed "Sometimes" to the question: "Do you feel that you have a 'normal' body according to mainstream depictions?" This reveals the confusion we as a generation have towards body image, thanks to the overwhelming influence the media and the host culture may play on our development.
ONWARDS FROM HERE.
I hope that these insights will contribute to the ongoing discussion about the Bronx community's health and food culture, especially amongst the non-native residents. There needs to be a decolonization of the structures that promote the rising of negative health consequences within the population in this borough, and a stronger emphasis on promoting a sustainable and healthy food lifestyle amongst those who lack the resources to do so. Thank you for your interest. -Maria K