Youth’s lived food environments: navigating everyday life realities on the brink of adulthood

The food environment is the immediate context through which people encounter the broader food system in their daily lives. Understanding how individuals navigate and experience their food environments is essential for developing sustainable food systems. This study examines the lived food environments of adolescents and young adults, a life stage characterized by both vulnerabilities and opportunities for food system transformation. We conducted a participatory Photovoice study with 16 participants in Finland, where young people gain independence relatively early. Thematic analysis identified five key themes shaping youths’ food environments: ambivalent social food environments, pressing temporal food environment, sustainable school meals and student lunches, guilt about not meeting adult norms, and frustration with the cultural norm of abundance. Although participants valued healthy and sustainable food practices, they often compromised their ideals. Disruptions in social relationships, combined with a need for social support, highlighted the importance of sharing food with others. The intertwined impacts of tight budgets, hectic lifestyle and food environments often remained unnoticed, contributing to self-blame and feelings of disempowerment. The findings highlight the need to strengthen food environment literacy and pay greater attention to the social dimensions of food environments to better support young people’s needs and everyday food practices.