FOOD, AND MEALS...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Child and youth care workers, food and meal's. Who eats what when, where? Who provides what, to whom, how? Every question word in the dictionary!

So it was in the queries and responses to a recent question and the responses in a social media child and youth care Facebook group.

"Should child and youth care workers be "fed" meals by the organisation  they work for?"

Discussion around issues of food, meals and feeding has shown to start vigourous discussion at any time.

In assembling a procedure manual for a short term residential facility, I thought it would be fairly straight forward. A matter of "this is what we do here".  Not to be so...sure there was a thread of standard operational procedure for meals, mealtime and child and youth care workers employed there, but the debate around what was, what is and what should be raved on for an hour and a half. I had to put an end to it. The page was marked "unresolved...to be further discussed". 

 The unresolved issues were the tensions and thinking arising from policy, professionalism, salaries, supervision       ( monitoring) young people at meals, menu's, the serving of food, portions, meal-time rules, wasted food, routine, chores and more... "Unresolved...to be discussed".

I left them with a guideline. In putting together your policy and procedure ask these questions. "What are the children and young people learning about the world which underlies what you do. Is what you do giving the young people messages that demonstrate an ideal world.the world as we want it to be especially in the status and relationship between children,  adults and food? Also does what you do measure up to the principles of child and youth care practice? These form a safe, good and required measure of sound practice. Are they tangibly experienced by young people in food, meals and child and youth care workers (adults)?

Reminder, the principles of child and youth care practice in South Africa, are: accountability, empowerment, participation, family centered, continuum of care, integration, continuity of care, normalisation, effective and efficient, permanency planning, African renaissance.

At first glance it seems asif only a few of these practice principles apply to meals, food and child and youth care workers, but in various ways each has implication. Some are primary and obvious, others less obvious but not the less important.

 In both of my appointments to Children's Homes the same policy around children, young people and meals applied. I was included in these practices as the Director. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander". Both residential facilities had live-in child and youth care workers and centralised kitchens. Both had a staff dining-room separate from the children and young people. There was a thing called "Dining-room Duty" for child and youth care workers on a  roster basis. In one, that person sat on a pedestal so that the children and young people could be observed. Both facilities were in receipt of food donated from local retail stores. In both, the staff got the best of the donated food on the grounds " The children don't eat that !". I inherited a system of different food, different separate dining spaces. sometimes different meal-times. Question. What are children learning about the adult/child world and adult/child relationships? 

The unfairness of different quality food and menu with child and youth care workers getting the better deal was obvious..  We all will eat the same. "what's good for the goose is good for the gander". 

Next stage. The dining space and seating re-arranged to ensure that in the mix, siblings sat together to ensure that families ate meals together at one table.

Next Stage. Child and youth care workers sit at the table where, as far as possible,a family group could be seated with as many of the child and youth care worker's focus group as possible. All had the same foo but it was dished up on plates in the kitchen and young people lined up, took a plate and went to the table. They took it in turns to clear the table. This initiated Step Three.

Step Three: The facility bought, or had donated, serving dishes. Children and young people were helped by the child and youth care worker to dish up until they could do it for  themselves. (normalisation and empowerment). This resulted sometimes in there being a wider choice at the table.as the seating at the tables with the child and youth care worker had a cultural mix. ( appropriateness)


The whole system was constantly discussed at the  Children's Representative Forum and the Child and Youth Care Workers Forum to smooth out any hiccups. (Efficient and effective). 

At the second facility, as said, it was still using the 'everything separate' model. Over time, steps toward change followed the same journey when in a dormitory, common dining-room setting. In a few years, though the dormitory setting moved into a group home setting...houses in the community. The group home setting allowed that meals, food and child and youth care worker take yet further steps toward living out the principles of child and youth care practice and a better life for all world view. A world driven by values of justice, co-operation, sharing,and social equality.With the child and youth care worker, children and young people budgeted against a set budget, constructed shopping lists and purchased the food monthly and top-ups as and when. It now required that the menu be broken up into ingredients, quantities and the handling of money. They helped with food preparation.                                                                                                 The child and youth care worker supported the young people to move from co-dependency to independence. (continuity of care)

The issues of professionality, the issues of who? what?, when?, where?, how?... faded,  .