Amanda Guarino, MA in History.

Topic: Treating hunger: medical expertise, nutritional science, and the development of technical food solutions.

Overview: I looked at how, starting with World War II until contemporary times, hunger came to be predominantly seen as a medical object, and food relief was reconceptualized as medical treatment. The scientific community’s research of hunger gave it a medical connotation that influenced the way hunger was managed: from the development of technically-engineered nutrition solutions that were guided by medical expertise to making hunger relief subjected to medical supervision. A medical framework reduces hunger to a biological problem, missing the socio-cultural experience and politico-economic roots of hunger. Further, it favors fast-acting, industrialized, expert-designed, and short-term nutritional solutions. This materialized in various products starting in the 1950s until current times. In viewing hunger through a medical prism, the broader structural causes of hunger and socio-cultural meanings of food are more easily obscured, favoring technical solutions that emphasize immediate, efficient and effective medical and nutritional results. If you want to learn more about Big Bothers Big Sisters and perhaps volunteer then go to their website at – https://kingston.bigbrothersbigsisters.ca/