Tag: who-deserves-to-eat

It’s Time to Modernize Food Banking

When I worked as a coordinator at my very first food pantry over a decade ago, I prepared for distribution by heading down to my local food bank to “shop the dock.” I picked up our order, and also got to browse through their unrestricted options that were up for grabs. One of my favorite things to dig into was the bread- they usually had an abundance of beautiful, fresh loaves from one of my favorite local bakery chains. I always enthusiastically loaded up our cargo van.

At the end of my pantry distribution, we always had too many of these loaves left over. Clients didn’t want it. Our shoppers were looking for softer, sliced bread, to make their children’s lunches or for toast with breakfast. This bread was too heavy, went stale a little faster in its paper bag, and it was likely that many of our households lacked bread knives suitable for slicing.

Ten years later, recollecting some of the food choices I made for this pantry makes me cringe. I loaded up on the bread that excited me, rather than recognizing the bread that my clients wanted.

Unfortunately, this rookie mistake is common in the emergency food assistance world.

Food banking was primarily designed to focus on the giver- to create the most convenient system based on our assumptions of the needs of those experiencing hunger.

Until recent years, little attention was given to the other side of this transaction (by mainstream anti-hunger institutions. Alternative food systems have been doing this work for ages.) Finally, we’re starting to have discussions about how we can develop effective ways for people experiencing hunger to access the food they need in a way that works for them.

If we started over from scratch on designing a model to end hunger, few individuals would likely choose a system where participants are scrutinized and deemed worthy before someone else allows them access to a selection of the foods the giver decides are appropriate.

Although it’s absolutely time that we start finding and developing new ways to respond to hunger, we can also reassess how we do food banking. There is tremendous opportunity for progress and empowerment by adapting our thinking and operations.

How can we transform this charity-focused system into something that truly empowers our community to thrive?

We must work with the resources we’ve got, which means we must turn our existing emergency food assistance program into something that focuses on the people we serve, rather than facilitating our own efforts.

It’s popular to throw around the term, “client centered.” Here’s what that can mean in practice:

  • Offering informational and outreach literature in the language spoken by shoppers and having someone available to speak their language in person.
  • Scheduling hours that are convenient and accessible for clients, which are almost always not the most convenient or accessible for volunteers. (This may demonstrate a need to depend more heavily on paid employees than volunteers).
  • Offering culturally appropriate foods that shoppers want and are excited about- which are quite possibly not the same thing that pantry staff wants to eat.
  • Having people with lived experience of hunger in leadership roles, on staff, and among volunteers, and systems that ensure their perspectives are celebrated and integrated into practice.

No matter how well educated we are, or how long we’ve worked in the field, we all carry prejudices about hunger that impact how we provide services. The only way to overcome this barrier is by designing structures and systems under the leadership of individuals with lived experience so that we don’t implement models based on our assumptions.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

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Food Justice IS Social Justice

I spent the last three years working at a food pantry committed to fighting hunger. My efforts centered on ensuring as many people as possible left our facility with as much food as they wanted while prioritizing access to culturally specific and healthy options. I firmly believe this pantry could have served as a national model of excellence, but I also recognize that even the best food pantry in the country can’t solve hunger through food distribution.

The public generally assumes that we need more food to fight hunger. People experiencing hunger don’t have enough, so we must develop solutions that offer more. Too often, anti-hunger advocates focus on how to access and distribute more food through uplifting programs that reduce food waste and increase agricultural production.

Although this is logical (and an effective piece of a much larger strategy), it oversimplifies the problem and neglects to consider the conditions that produce hunger in the first place.

Food insecurity is a result of systems of oppression.

Racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, and other forms of discrimination stop people from accessing the resources they need to thrive and the food they need to live.

Racial discrimination keeps people of color from amassing wealth at the rates available to white Americans. The gender pay gap ensures that women have less buying power than men. LGBTQ+ individuals face employment and housing discrimination that makes them more vulnerable to job loss and houselessness.

While all these individuals absolutely need food to survive today, they will also need food tomorrow. Rather than maintaining a system that perpetually provides emergency food assistance, why aren’t we addressing the problems that leave them food insecure in the first place?

Undeniably, this is the more complex solution.

It is much easier to contact grocery stores for donations than to overcome systems of oppression. And it demands a focus on equity that we’ve repeatedly seen many of our neighbors are not comfortable with.

Food banks and pantries provide a convenient and accessible way for people to give back to their community and support their neighbors. These programs impose limits on services to ensure users don’t have access to everything they need under the mistaken assumption that offering stable food access will foster “welfare queens” and abuse of benefits.

This is why so many food access organizations prefer to offer food as the only solution to hunger. It doesn’t challenge the biases of volunteers, won’t upset the politics of donors, and still allows them to “do good” for their community. It also doesn’t end hunger.

Food justice, on the other hand, recognizes that we don’t have the capacity to perpetually fight hunger this way, and that a much smarter, more equitable, more just, and more effective solution is to eliminate it altogether.

Food justice forces us to recognize and address injustice around us.

This requires fostering an organizational environment that encourages learning, growth, and humility; the confidence to turn away from donors who don’t share these values; and a profound respect for the dignity of the people utilizing these services.

This is no small task, and I don’t mean to minimize the difficulty of transforming from an anti-hunger to a food justice mindset. But the one thing that anti-hunger organizations can do every day to facilitate this transition is to recognize the human right to healthy, delicious food without judgement or conditions.

Today is MLK Day, which means every organization with a social media presence is sharing a feel-good message about nonviolence, social justice, and hope. The challenge for food justice advocates is to find the organizations that actively practice those values every other day of the year.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

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Do You Advocate Like Everyone Deserves to Eat?

When I say that “everyone deserves to eat,” no one argues with me. This statement is lauded as commendable, generous, and noncontroversial.

But when I start to discuss individual populations and how to make sure they have the food they need to thrive, I regularly encounter resistance. Even with mission statements about universally ending hunger, many individuals and organizations have confidential qualifiers about who is really included in their anti-hunger efforts.  

Who is regularly excluded from the idea that everyone deserves to eat?

The idea that children are helpless to fight hunger makes them a high priority for food assistance programs. Adults without children, less so. In 2019 the anti-hunger community had to aggressively rally to prevent SNAP rule changes increasing the burden on individuals without children to continue receiving food assistance. The assumption is that people able to work can make enough money to be self-sufficient if they just try hard enough, regardless of the mountains of data demonstrating otherwise.

For the same reason, seniors are a primary focus of anti-hunger efforts. Living on fixed retirement incomes, they are vulnerable to economic fluctuations and sudden changes in circumstance.

As a result, many anti-hunger organizations seeking noncontroversial community backing will emphasize through their mission statements, goals, and donor outreach that they support and nourish families, children, and seniors. But this comes at the expense of people who don’t fall within those demographics.

To maintain the impression that anti-hunger efforts only support individuals truly deserving of help, few food justice organizations are brave enough to advocate for people living in poverty just because they live in poverty. Even fewer are comfortable identifying the racial and systemic injustices that produce this condition.

Beyond the anti-hunger community’s preference for serving families, there are several other demographics who are consistently judged as undeserving of healthy food and food access.

The quality and health of food in prisons is a growing topic lately, with many people promoting the assumption that breaking the law exempts an individual from the right to healthy food and a healthy body.  

Further, people with criminal convictions may be restricted or banned from receiving food assistance long after they complete their sentence, again justified by the idea that breaking the rules exempts them from privileges.

Regardless of your opinion on whether these demographics really deserve to eat as much as anyone else, it demonstrates that the concept that ‘everyone deserves to eat’ is far more loaded than it appears.

If we’re committed to being true anti-hunger advocates, then we need to make sure there is alignment between our words and our actions. Here’s how to check:

  • Who does your organization serve? Are there specific groups or demographics targeted more than others? Is that specifically identified in your outreach efforts? Does your mission statement and/or vision reflect this?
  • How narrow or broad are your advocacy efforts? Do you only act on childhood hunger, but offer food access services to adults?
  • Do you use data to inform your policy actions? For example, does your organization prioritize demographics like families or children even when your region has uncomfortably high hunger rates among other, deemed “less deserving” demographics?
  • What relationships will you gain or lose if you’re honest about who your organization does or does not prioritize/serve?

Ensuring anti-hunger advocates and organizations have a clear alignment between their mission and actions ensures we’re building trustworthy leaders. It is hard to let go of preconceived ideas about what our community wants to support, what our leaders are comfortable fighting for, and the easiest ways to achieve our goals. Transparency in how we think about and act on our anti-hunger aspirations is the only way we will build a truly effective and motivated coalition that can actually end hunger.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

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2023 Recap

In the spirit of the New Year, this week I’m reflecting on my accomplishments of 2023. Having spent years looking for and thinking about the resources that I wanted to see as an anti-hunger advocate, I’m proud to have started filling the gaps with my own ideas.

There is enormous opportunity for the anti-hunger community to advance how we talk about and share our services.

I’ve been excited to learn that there is interest in my content, and I’m motivated to continue sharing my strategies on advancing anti-hunger action in the coming year.

In 2024, I am enthusiastic about dedicating more time to food justice philosophies and exploring how they can change our implementation. You can still expect weekly posts about this work, but I am also looking for insights from readers. I’d love to hear if you have an anti-hunger question that you’re like to start a discussion on. Please reach out and share your ideas!

To recap 2023, here are the three posts that resonated with my readership the most. Be sure to check them out if you missed them the first time!

Learning to Cook Won’t Solve Hunger

November 27, 2023.

The Problem is Never Just Hunger

December 4, 2023. 187 views

How to Make Your Food Donations Count This Winter

October 16, 2023.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

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How to Build a Friendly Environment in Any Food Pantry

Last week I was privileged to take a tour of a local food pantry that is part of a relatively new and rapidly growing program. As a result, the food pantry has bounced around in several different physical spaces as office needs have evolved and rooms became available. The current space was the smallest grocery-style food pantry I’ve ever seen.

Approximately 12 x 12 feet, this pantry had room for three standing fridge/freezers, a wall of shelves for canned goods, and counter space for displaying fresh produce. Pantry policy is to check in clients at the door and allow up to three shoppers to browse the space at once. To facilitate this, the organization has prioritized establishing a play area with volunteer supervision for the children of clients. Parents are thus able to shop at their leisure, and the pantry doesn’t have to navigate extra bodies in the room. It is an efficient and elegant system, despite all the disadvantages that come with a room barely bigger than a closet.

There are very few food pantries who occupy their ideal facility. Instead, they live in basement rooms, neglected offices, and vacant closets. Having to depend on unwanted and undesirable spaces can be challenging and discouraging, but there are still ample opportunities for organizations to make their services as respectful, desirable, and functional as in a purpose-built facility.

Here are three essential qualities for turning any food pantry space into one that is dignified and functional for everyone:

  • Abundance. Whether the pantry is a tiny closet or a cavernous warehouse, keeping the shelves piled high with food fosters an abundance mindset that provides a sense of security and comfort to people seeking assistance.

When people are confident that they have access to essential resources, they are more likely to just take what they need. When they are fearful that there isn’t enough (and especially if there’s any sense of competition among shoppers), they are more likely to fall into a scarcity mindset which often motivates them to take more food.  A smaller room facilitates the presentation of abundance, but attention to how food is displayed can simulate a sense of plenty in any space.

No one wants to be at a food pantry in the first place, so developing systems that empower shoppers to make their own choices can help address the inherent power imbalance in using emergency food resources.

Grocery-style pantries that allow their visitors to browse as one would do at any store are an effective way to add dignity to the experience. Many food pantries continue to depend on systems where clients must proceed in a line past their food options. While this system is primarily successful at increasing the speed at which people shop, it also can evoke a sense of powerlessness. Letting shoppers get out of line or step ahead of a slow shopper may be a simple option for restoring a little bit of autonomy.

While every food pantry deserves a big, beautiful room with airy windows, a play area, and ease of access for everyone, we must work with the options available. By considering these factors, we can still transform any space into an experience that helps our community feel welcome, nourished, and dignified.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

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