Thursday Thread: How Do You Manage Foodwork In Your Home?

In case it’s not clear, I’ve been thinking a lot about foodwork. Who gets to do it and who gets to opt out. Ways to try and minimise it or at least make it easier. Who gets celebrated for it. Who gets chastised when they don’t do it up to standard. The ways it’s gendered and racialised. The double standards of how foodwork is evaluated. And of course, how every supposed solution to nutrition problems hinges on more people doing more foodwork. 

A Kilo Bag of Sweet Potatoes

The Sweet Potato as an Ideological Tool

Can I Have Another Snack?Laura Thomas

Jamie Oliver Is Your Diet Daddy And You’re In Trouble

On Disciplining the Nutritionwork of a Nation

Can I Have Another Snack?Laura Thomas

I don’t necessarily have any answers but I’m working on a piece that tries to get closer to something better than warning labels or taxes or scaring people into behaving ‘correctly’.

In the meantime though, I want to hear about how foodwork is organised in your home/family/friendships/community.

What is your setup? Does someone plan meals or do you wing it? If you plan meals, do you just jot down a few ideas on scrap paper, use an app, a planner? Do you do one Big Shop a week/month and top-up with smaller ones? Or do you just pick up what you need for the day? Do you shop online and have it delivered? Or click and collect? Or do you go to the supermarket or shops in person? Do you food budget for the week/month and what does it include?

Who does the cooking? Do you batch cook, or cook every day/night? Do you bring lunch to work or buy something like a Meal Deal? Do you use a meal kit? Who thinks about using up what’s left in the fridge or clearing out rotting veg from the bottom of the drawer? Who sets the table? Who tidies it up? Who does the washing up? How often do you get take out or eat at a restaurant? Who thinks about kids' meals and snacks? Who orders the kids school lunches or makes the packed lunch? Do you eat meals with friends/family and how do you organise it? (i.e. potlucks or taking turns or going out to eat).