Abstract
The rise of food banks has renewed debate about the extent of poverty and the adequacy of welfare provision. We conducted interviews with 25 food bank users in Bristol, finding that benefit penalties and precarious employment are implicated in food bank uptake, but that users’ experiences are more complicated than an unmediated response to hunger. Food banks provide informal support for people on low incomes to manage none food expenditure as well as meeting dietary needs. Some reported shame at needing the food bank, but others suggested that the informality and flexibility were preferable to some forms of state welfare.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 311-329 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Voluntary Sector Review |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 29 Nov 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Dec 2018 |
Keywords
- food banks
- voluntarism
- poverty
- hunger
Access to Document
- Why_do_people_use_food_banks_final_changes_accepted.PDF
This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy edited version of an article published in Voluntary Sector Review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Wainwright, David, Buckingham, Alan, Wainwright, Elaine, 'Why do people use food banks? A qualitative study of food bank users in an English city' Voluntary Sector Review, Volume 9, Number 3, December 2018, pp. 311-329(19), is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1332/204080518X15428930047072