Reshaping the food aid landscape

Alice Willatt, Rosalind Beadle, Mary Brydon-Miller

Research output: Chapter or section in a book/report/conference proceedingChapter or section

1 Citation (SciVal)

Abstract

Charitable food aid has become a first line of response for addressing rising rates of hunger in many high-income countries such as the United States (US), Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom (UK). This can be seen in the soaring numbers of food banks, alongside other charitable projects such as community kitchens, resourced through volunteer labour and food donations from corporate retailers. In the US and Canada, food banks have been an institutionalised response to food poverty for 35 years, and in the UK they can be traced back to the introduction of economic austerity measures implemented in response to the 2008 financial crisis (Lambie-Mumford, 2019). In the UK, where 8.4 million people live in food poverty, the largest national food bank provider, The Trussell Trust, has grown its network from 65 food banks in 2011 to more than 1, 200 in 2019 (Sosenko et al, 2019). Australia’s largest food relief organisation, Foodbank, reports that during the 12 months leading up to 2019, the need for food relief increased by 22 per cent, with more than one in five people experiencing food insecurity. The organisation works with 2, 400 charities to provide food relief but only 37 per cent reported that they were meeting the needs of those they assist (Foodbank, 2019).

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTomorrow’s Communities
Subtitle of host publicationLessons for Community-based Transformation in the Age of Global Crises
EditorsHenry Tam
PublisherPolicy Press
Pages197-213
Number of pages17
ISBN (Electronic)9781447361138
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2021
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences

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