Table 5.

Mesosystem: how mothers navigate the food environment. Data collected from thirty in-depth interviews, a participatory workshop and a photovoice approach among Latina mothers with <10-year-old children living in a ‘food swamp’ in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, April–May 2015

Sub-theme	Illustrative quotes
5·1. Deciding where they will buy the foods they want/need
5·1a. Where are the foods that they ‘need’ available? (Sub-theme emerged only during culminating workshop discussion)	‘We all go to the Latin stores to get the rice, the beans, the [Central American] cheese, the [Central American] cream […] The things that we do not need, then we find in Costco, Giant or Walmart.’
	‘We go to the Latin stores because it is more comfortable, because it is lack of information. We cannot cook the things that are there at Safeway and Giant.’
5·1b. Where are the foods that they ‘need’ well-priced?	‘Safeway and Giant; no, no, no, that’s where the rich people go [laughing]. They have Latin foods, but sometimes we find them expensive.’ (From culminating workshop discussion)
	‘I am buying this because it is on sale. But I buy two or three things a day, or for the week.’
5·1c. Where are the foods that they ‘need’ of better quality?	‘Well I go to the Aldi because I buy a lot of things there. And for meat I go to the Mega, because I like it more fresh.’
	‘Because in the Latin stores they sell too many things that are spoiled: fruits, meats, they do not have the control, the yoghurts are spoiled sometimes.’ (From culminating workshop discussion)
5·1d. Buying in bulk	‘Sometimes I prefer to buy them in bulk. […] 25 pound for the whole month and a little for more.’
	‘We go for the largest litre, for some juices for the kids, the largest litres.’
5·1e. Adjusting diet at end of month	‘A week after the famous rent comes is when one has to start to eat more differently […] we think about different types of foods that don’t incorporate too much meat or fish or nothing.’
	‘In that week before paying the rent, it is the sweets that are not put into the basket.’

Giant, Aldi and Safeway are US supermarket brands with national chains. Costco and Walmart are warehouses that sell foods; they are also chains. Megastore is a local supermarket that targets Latinos by bringing foodstuffs from Latin America.