From “Junk Food” to “Treats”

This paper explores how poverty and social inequality become institutionalized and embodied through food practices. Using qualitative data collected from four cities in the United States, this paper focuses on how low-income mothers make sense of family food provisioning in the age of intensive mothering expectations. The findings show that while low-income mothers aspire to provide their children high-quality diets in ways that are similar to their higher-income counterparts, poor mothers have to recalibrate their desired food choices according to the constraints of poverty. Findings from this paper further our understanding of how poverty shapes food behaviors and have practical implications for those working to improve the health of low-income populations.