The Ecology of street foods in Nairobi
Date
2010-08Author
Mwangi, Alice M
Hartog, Adel P den
Foeken, Dick W J
Hilda, Van't R
Mwadime, Robert K N
Wija, A Van Staveren
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Very little is known about street foods in sub‐Sahara Africa. We investigated the scope of the street food phenomenon in Nairobi, both in the past and present, with the aim of establishing circumstances surrounding its practice and its function in the urban food supply. We found that street food vending and consumption in Nairobi rapidly increased during the previous two decades, instigated by the need for affordable food among low‐income urban dwellers and the need for employment. It is an expanding and thriving phenomenon, especially among the urban poor, and climbs up the socio‐economic ladder due to increasing monetary demands. In addition to being a food supply channel for the urban poor, street food vending in Nairobi provides employment opportunities to a labor force that would otherwise be unemployed. There is need to legitimize the sector with simple regulations that make the food safe but not expensiveVery little is known about street foods in sub‐Sahara Africa. We investigated the scope of the street food phenomenon in Nairobi, both in the past and present, with the aim of establishing circumstances surrounding its practice and its function in the urban food supply. We found that street food vending and consumption in Nairobi rapidly increased during the previous two decades, instigated by the need for affordable food among low‐income urban dwellers and the need for employment. It is an expanding and thriving phenomenon, especially among the urban poor, and climbs up the socio‐economic ladder due to increasing monetary demands. In addition to being a food supply channel for the urban poor, street food vending in Nairobi provides employment opportunities to a labour force that would otherwise be unemployed. There is need to legitimize the sector with simple regulations that make the food safe but not expensive
URI
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03670244.2001.9991664#previewhttp://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/34686
Citation
Mwangi, Alice Mboganie,The Ecology Of Street Foods In Nairobi, 2010, p497-523,Ecology of Food and Nutrition Volume 40, Issue 5, 2001Publisher
University of Nairobi Faculty of Agriculture