Abstract
Charitable food aid is a contested terrain. The need for it in the UK invokes shock and the role of government policy in exacerbating this need is often discussed. This book adds to the evidence and discussions on food insecurity and food aid by shedding light on what Maddy Power identifies as ‘relatively neglected dimensions of the debate’ (p. 140). Whilst the links between austerity, household food insecurity and the need for charitable food aid are increasingly recognised in existing literature, Power effectively steps back and adopts a much broader lens with which to interrogate this social issue and the subsequent response. Power explores the more entrenched root causes of food insecurity in the UK including racism, sexism, colonialism, imperialism, exploited labour and gendered oppression; and asserts that the current system of charitable food aid in the UK maintains the neoliberal polices and ideologies of individualism, surveillance and White privilege.
Accordingly, the book makes for some heavy and challenging reading. The introduction sets the scene for this, written with a refreshing honesty that signals to the reader that an openly critical account will follow. The book proceeds to look below the surface of community based charitable food aid to highlight the more problematic elements of this system, elements which emanate from existing institutions in which inequalities are inherent. However, whilst the content is necessarily heavy, Power writes the book in a highly accessible style. An exemplar of this accessibility is provided at the start of Chapter 2 when, prior to the critique of the current key conceptual frameworks on the topic, the opening paragraphs briefly explore ‘what is the need for theory’, concisely explaining to need for theory in a book which explores a very real social issue in which households find themselves going hungry.
Drawing on data collected from two interlinked studies in the cities of Bradford and York chapters 3 to 5 explore some of the problematic elements of the charitable food aid system. Chapter 3 explores neoliberal governmentality, Chapter 4 discusses the interplay of neoliberalism and religion, and Chapter 5 considers the construct of ‘Whiteness’. Across the chapters is an exploration of the impact of these on the people involved in food charity (providers and receivers) but also the wider ramifications of their presence in food aid such as the maintenance of institutions laden with inequality. As such, Power adds new insights and wider critique than that currently available in the literature. Chapter 6 explores the lives of people experiencing poverty and unpicks the systems that maintain food insecurity such as language, the disciplinary state, state surveillance, self-surveillance, and the dynamics of capitalism.
Following a discussion of ethnicity and race, not yet widely covered in the UK literature on food insecurity, Chapter 7 introduces a more hopeful lens with which to consider charitable food aid. Exploring social solidarity and mutual aid leads Power to suggest that food aid offers some promise for the cultivation and development of new political beliefs that challenge neoliberal austerity. Whilst the author caveats this take and voices concern as to the extent to which localised food projects can pose real challenge to the state (rather than enable further retrenchment of the welfare state) the ideas introduced in the second half of the chapter lay the groundwork for an alternative view of charitable food aid than that which is regularly presented. Given the number of these types of community food providers and the resource inputted to them (e.g. volunteer hours) it is a valuable contribution to consider how the largely critiqued practice of charitable food aid can be reconsidered in a way that gives the sector agency to contribute to wider change. Finally, Chapter 8, ‘seeds beneath the snow’ further explores this reconsidered view of food aid although this hopeful sentiment is, necessarily, somewhat muted given that the prevalence of food insecurity in the UK increased during the pandemic and, more broadly, inequalities of race, gender and class were amplified. The chapter closes with three examples from the US of organisations leading on ‘radical - and immensely varied – approaches to tackling hunger and promoting racial and economic food justice’ which Power hopes may support other organisations to ‘chart a different path’ (p. 148).
It is regularly asserted that charitable food aid is not, cannot, and should not be the ‘solution’ to food insecurity. Rather this is a social policy issue that can largely be addressed through national policies on household income. A recent consultation by the Scottish Government on a national plan to end the need food banks, and a public inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ending the Need for Food Banks suggests there is some political will for a transition away from charitable food aid and the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have fostered renewed interest in solidarity and communitarianism. Therefore, this is an opportune time for the publication of Power’s well evidenced and clearly articulated critique. By adopting a broader lens, the book is an important addition to current scholarship and adds significant weight to existing arguments against charitable food aid, doing so by evidencing the relationship between food aid and the wider institutions prevailing in the UK which create, maintain and exacerbate inequality. However, it also closes with a necessarily muted, but all the same hopeful version of food aid contributing to the required systemic change. Although challenging, I recommend this accessible book to academics, policymakers and practitioners alike.