Pauvreté, monoparentalité et alimentation

The survey was carried out in the North of France. Its purpose was to examine the link between poverty and food. The results underline that the marital and social situations of the interviewed persons were more important to understand their meal patterns, than their low level of resources. When the spouse is left, there is no more familial interest to have meal together, and then we observed that women spend less time to cook. On the opposite, food can, in other cases, play a positive role in dealing with poverty. Thus, provisioning and cooking appear as social activities which allow isolated people to keep a social life. In both cases, the meal is maintained, and the difference sets at the level of preparation. In conclusion, the article invites to reconsider the ways of cooking in poverty situations. It suggests that we should change the representations of an elaborate meal which doesn't necessarily needs fresh products, but also appertized and frozen products. In this way, we should partly solve the constraint of cost and time of preparation.