What’s for dinner? Eating practices in residential care centres for young people in Ireland

This study explores the significance of food and eating practices and how they affect the ritual and routine of daily life in residential care for young people in Ireland. Studying how food is used in residential care centres—what is eaten, how, when, and where it is eaten—increases the sociological understanding of institutional eating practices in such settings. This article draws on empirical evidence collected using a mixed methods approach of focused ethnographies plus a survey of social care practitioners employed in residential care. This article considers how practices of food and eating in care settings reflect similar practices among the general public. It concludes with reflections on how food is used symbolically to demonstrate and to reject care, and how eating practices play a significant role for care workers in making the young people feel cared for and, to some extent, feel at “home.”