Food Banking

Food banks are often depicted as band-aid solutions to hunger and poverty. However, little is known about what barriers food banks face to changing their practices, how their relationships to the food industry affect their operations, and how they engage with civil society and governance structures.
This research project examined the history of food banks in Canada and involved an in-depth case study of one food bank in Verdun, Montreal. It involved a literature review and a series of interviews of food bank experts around Canada, many of who had been involved in the sector for over thirty years. The case study examined the food banks from material, social, cultural, financial, and political perspectives, relying on interviews, on-site participatory research, and surveys.

¿La caridad puede combatir la pobreza alimentaria, y a la vez reducir el desperdicio de alimentos? La fundación Banco de Alimentos así lo cree y lo promueve. Para demostrarlo nos anima a «seguir la comida» que distribuye y contemplar cómo termina en el usuario de sus servicios: personas que padecen pobreza alimentaria.
El presente libro, en cambio, propone «seguir el dinero» con el que se adquieren los productos que reparte el Banco de Alimentos. Una perspectiva distinta que nos descubre su simbiótica relación con la gran industria agroalimentaria: su principal beneficiario.

In the UK, the current Coalition government has introduced an unprecedented set of reforms to welfare, public services and local governance under the rubric of localism. Conventional analytics of neoliberalism have commonly portrayed the impacts of these changes in the architectures of governance in blanket terms: as an utterly regressive dilution of local democracy; as an extension of conservative political technology by which state welfare is denuded in favour of market-led individualism; and as a further politicised subjectification of the charitable self. Such seemingly hegemonic grammars of critique can ignore or underestimate the progressive possibilities for creating new ethical and political spaces in amongst the neoliberal canvas. In this paper we investigate the localism agenda using alternative interpretative grammars that are more open to the recognition of interstitial politics of resistance and experimentation that are springing up within, across and beyond formations of the neoliberal. We analyse the broad framework of intentional localisms laid down by the Coalition, and then point to four significant pathways by which more progressive articulations of localism have been emerging in amongst the neoliberal infrastructure. In so doing we seek to endorse and expand imaginations of political activism that accentuate an interstitial political sensibility that works strategically, and even subversively, with the tools at hand.

The combined issues of climate change, food price volatility, and urban population growth indicate the need for more resilient food systems in cities. Two most prominent policy approaches—wealth redistribution and market deregulation— are by themselves insufficient in guaranteeing food sovereignty on a local level. We wish to introduce two frameworks that can provide some theoretical tools to under- stand the governance structures needed for supporting local food projects: joined-up food policy and a nested institutions and approach. To illustrate the application of these frameworks, we discuss a case study of the history of food banks in Canada, as well as an in-depth study of one food bank in Montreal, Quebec. This research has several implications that may be of benefit to policy-makers, researchers, and food activists.  First, it provides an outline of a framework that can help understand barriers to urban food sovereignty, as well as suggest recommendations for alternative policy approaches that meet the 21st century challenge of multi-actor and multi-level governance.

Food banks are privately-owned non-profit organizations responsible for the receipt, processing, storage, and distribution of food items to charitable agencies. These charitable agencies in turn distribute food to individuals at risk of hunger. Food banks receive donated food from national and local sources, such as The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and supermarkets. Local sources with frequent high-volume donations justify the use of food bank vehicles for collection. Food bank vehicles are also used to deliver food to rural charitable agencies that are located beyond a distance safe for perishable food to travel without spoilage. Due to limited funds, food banks can only afford to sparingly use their capital on non-food items. This requires exploring more cost effective food delivery and collection strategies. The goal of this paper is to develop transportation schedules that enable the food bank to both (i) collect food donations from local sources and (ii) to deliver food to charitable agencies. We identify satellite locations, called food delivery points (FDPs), where agencies can receive food deliveries. A set covering model is developed to determine the assignment of agencies to a FDP. Both vehicle capacity and food spoilage constraints are considered during assignment. Using the optimal assignment of agencies to FDPs, we identify a weekly transportation schedule that addresses collection and distribution of donated food and incorporates constraints related to food safety, operator workday, collection frequency, and fleet capacity.

Food waste is a global problem with significant economic and environmental consequences. Food waste management approaches include production of biogas, animal feed and compost and surplus food redistribution. From a sustainability point of view, surplus food redistribution is the most favorable approach. Surplus food redistribution can be either direct (between suppliers of surplus food and charity food services) or indirect (Through Food banks). This paper is a case study on direct surplus food redistribution in ten cities in Norway. The study explores the logistics, embedded social relationships and volume of surplus food redistributed through charity food services. The results show that the logistics of direct redistribution in the cities included in this study are complex, efficient and formal. Direct surplus food redistribution in Norway is heavily dependent on the workforce of volunteers and personal relationships among the participating actors. Every day 3500 meals are made with ingredients from direct redistribution in the ten cities included in the study. In conclusion, the study suggest that current surplus food redistribution in the cities included in this study make a significant contribution to food waste reduction and surplus food redistribution should be considered as a strategy to reduce food waste.

In addition to other forms of precarity, food insecurity—citizens not having access to nutritious food—is an issue of growing concern in contemporary Japan. This article explores societal responses and documents a strong growth of volunteerism in the form of food banks and kodomo shokudō (children's cafeterias) that offer cheap or free meals to children in need. Both types of programs have become more common since the mid-2000s and are filling a void left by the government. This article explores the tensions in these private programs by drawing on the concept of ethical citizenship, which suggests that volunteerism is entrenched in neoliberalization. The programs are constructed in terms of moral matters, such as creating ibasho (space) for citizens’ mutual help and reducing food loss by “bringing back mottainai” (wasting nothing). This championing of community power risks masking the fact that food insecurity is in part a result of the failure of public safety nets.

The public–private food assistance system (PPFAS) emerged during the 1970s to address “emergency” food needs and has since grown into a regularized social welfare system of grocery and meal provision and related program delivery, realized through the collective efforts of organizations and individuals. We explore the context, history, and organization of the PPFAS to better understand how and why public and private actors work together to provide for the social welfare of poor people. We find that the PPFAS is organized as a multiactor, multiscalar network within which the relations between state, market, and civil society are continuously negotiated. The PPFAS may seem like the quintessential example of privatized governance with its attendant movement of decision making outside of the public sphere. Rather than consider the PPFAS as a neoliberal fait accompli, we view the PPFAS as a site of contestation about how social welfare and, more broadly, democratic governance is organized.

Food insecurity is a widespread concern in the United States. Addressing this concern is a chief goal of many non-profit organizations including food banks. Understanding the availability of donations is beneficial when addressing the demand in local communities, especially when their collection requires food bank-managed vehicles. High-volume donors such as supermarkets, however, do not provide information in regards to what items are available. This can negatively impact inventory management capabilities and cause unnecessary transportation costs.

This research evaluates four approximation methods based on their ability to estimate food availability at supermarkets including the multiple layer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP-NN), multiple linear regression, and two naïve estimates for the average collection amount. Using a subset of the historic data provided by the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina (FBCENC), the four approximation methods are evaluated in terms of their ability to estimate collection amounts in the next planning period. Transportation cost estimates are then calculated using projections made using each approximation method and compared to those calculated using the actual transportation costs. Results suggest that the MLP-NN models provide the best approximations for each food type and provide closer estimations for transportation cost than other approximation methods.

ÖZET Sosyal politikaların sadece devlet tarafından uygulanıyor olması, zamanla bazı yetersizlik ve eksiklerin ortaya çıkmasına neden olmuş, bu da dernek ve vakıflar gibi kurumların oluşmasında sebep teşkil etmiştir. Bu kapsamda değerlendirildiğinde günümüz sosyal politikaları ve bunların uygulanması anlamında yardımcı olan sosyal politika araçları da değişmekte ve yeni şekiller alarak uygulama alanı bulmaktadır. Ülkemiz açısından yeni sayılabilecek ancak dünya üzerindeki ortaya çıkma ve uygulamalarına baktığımızda yaklaşık altmış yıllık bir geçmişi olan " gıda bankacılığı " buna örnek gösterilebilir. Burada iki unsur dikkatimizi çekmektedir, bu faaliyetleri üstlenen kurumlar açısından işin organize edilmesi ve uygulanması yani bankacılık tarafı, diğeri de bu kurumlara ilgili malzemeleri teslim eden ya da bağışlayan durumundaki ticari firmalar. Bu çalışmanın amacı, gıda bankacılığına ticari firmalar yönüyle bakıldığında, bir sosyal paylaşım mı yoksa zaten vergi indirimlerinden düşecek olması nedeniyle bir gider kaleminin başka şekildeki ifadesi mi olduğu ve gıda bankacılığının kendi başına bir sosyal politika aracı mı veya başka bir sosyal politika aracının alt unsuru mu olduğudur. Son olarak gıda bankacılığının ülkemizdeki durumuyla ilgili bir değerlendirme yapılmıştır. ABSTRACT In the length of changing time the aspect of social policy has become ineffective and resulted incompetency and therefore the stuation itself created other means of social policies like charities and Non Governmental Organizations. The aim of this study is to verify whether the foodbanking is a social policy for trade companies or it is just a way of getting rid of some responsibilities concerning taxes and at the same time whether foodbanking itself is a means of social policy or subdivision of it. Lastly the subject was evaluated through aplication in our country.

In addition to other forms of precarity, food insecurity—citizens not having access to nutritious food—is of a growing concern in contemporary Japan. This paper explores societal responses and documents a strong growth of volunteerism in the form of food banks and kodomo shokudō (kids' cafeterias) that offer cheap or free meals to children in need. Both types of programs have grown since the mid-2000s and are filling a void left by the government. This paper explores the tensions in these private programs by drawing on the concept of ethical citizenship, which suggests that volunteerism is entrenched in neoliberalization. The programs are constructed in terms of moral matters such as creating ibasho (space) for citizens' mutual help and reducing food loss by " bringing back mottainai " (wasting nothing). This championing of community power risks masking that food insecurity is in part a result of the failure of public safety nets.

Religious charity is said to be one of the oldest phenomena which has been present in many societies and social welfare provision is one of the central aspects of religious charity. Although, religiously motivated welfare provision has an older history than nation state based welfare provision, with the advent of the modern welfare state social aid area has been taken -partially or totally- from the religious authorities. However starting with 80s and attracting considerable interest by 90s in contemporary world, religious themes, namely faith based organizations, have been visible again in social aid area. As a form of faith based welfare provision, Faith Based Organization (FBO) is the central concept of this study; particularly Islamist FBOs will be on the focus of this study. In that sense FBOs will be studied as a part in history of Islamist faith based welfare provision in Turkey. The central hypotheses of the thesis, FBOs are organizations fertilized by changing economic and political climate of 70s. Changing state religion relationships has a significant impact on FBO proliferation in Turkey. By combating through poverty FBOs have big problems in terms of financial accountability, permanency, trustworthiness and professionalism.

This article focuses on the role of food banks in Brazil as an alternative to reducing food waste and as a strategy to mobilize society for the promotion of food security. Based on the analysis of the context of global food and international examples of implementation of food banks, the importance and appropriateness of projects to reduce food waste are discussed, as well as the organizational and institutional environment that promoted such initiatives in several countries. Data regarding food waste is presented to illustrate organizational arrangements that emerged in Brazil, especially in the structuring of public food banks, held for municipal councils and the Food Bank based in Wholesale Markets. The articulation of food banks to provide logistical support for the federal Food Acquisition Program, aimed at smallholder farmers, as well as the structuring of a local network of food banks in the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, are presented as examples for structuring a system that coordinates non-governmental and public food security initiatives.

Many resources have been used in order to alleviate food poverty caused by economic crisis in Euskadi. This phenomenon reflects an increase in inequality and calls for reflection on what it means in the development of the welfare state as a whole, and ultimately, what food insecurity means in the developed world.
As Graham Riches argued: “food security itself is central to global debates on poverty, environmental sustainability, social justice and democracy”. Specifically, we could add that food banks have become the last resort to inappropriate state mechanisms to deal with situations of poverty not defined yet.
This communication is at the crossroads that raises the relationship between food security, social policy, welfare residualisation and the right to food. It is to describe the emergency and rise of Food Banks in the major cities of Euskadi, reflect about the role of charity as a substitute of the instruments of the state, and frame the current situation on experiences of other countries in which it is patent the institutionalization of this phenomenon, as is the case in Canada.
Key words: Food Banks, right to food, charity, welfare state, Euskadi.

Food waste is a global problem with significant economic and environmental consequences. Food waste management approaches include production of biogas, animal feed and compost and surplus food redistribution. From a sustainability point of view, surplus food redistribution is the most favorable approach. Surplus food redistribution can be either direct (between suppliers of surplus food and charity food services) or indirect (Through Food banks). This paper is a case study on direct surplus food redistribution in ten cities in Norway. The study explores the logistics, embedded social relationships and volume of surplus food redistributed through charity food services. The results show that the logistics of direct redistribution in the cities included in this study are complex, efficient and formal. Direct surplus food redistribution in Norway is heavily dependent on the workforce of volunteers and personal relationships among the participating actors. Every day 3500 meals are made with ingredients from direct redistribution in the ten cities included in the study. In conclusion, the study suggest that current surplus food redistribution in the cities included in this study make a significant contribution to food waste reduction and surplus food redistribution should be considered as a strategy to reduce food waste.

This paper builds on a nascent literature on rural austerity to explore the variegated geographies of austerity and food banking in rural areas of England and Wales. The paper makes three key contributions. First, drawing on a range of existing and newly updated datasets on local authority spending power and service spending, changes to welfare benefits, benefit sanctions, and local welfare assistance schemes we use the Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2011 Rural-Urban Classification of Local Authorities to provide the first comprehensive analysis of austerity in rural England and Wales. We outline the variegated nature of rural austerity and examine the ways in which new geographies of austerity are overwriting and compounding problems of rural poverty in the UK. Second, we combine newly available data from the Trussell Trust and Independent Food Aid Network to outline a geography of food banking in rural England and Wales, highlighting the uneven distribution of food aid across rural areas and discuss some of the problems rural locations pose to both those seeking and providing food aid. Third, drawing on interviews with food bank managers, volunteers and clients in two very different rural areas we examine how different rural contexts produce different experiences of and responses to poverty and food insecurity, paying particular attention to localised cultures of charity, welfare and deservingness. We conclude by setting out a new research agenda around which scholars might further explore the relationships between austerity, food insecurity and food banking in rural areas.

In the UK the current Coalition government has introduced an unprecedented set of reforms to welfare, public services, and local governance under the rubric of ‘localism’. Conventional analytics of neoliberalism have commonly portrayed the impacts of these changes in the architectures of governance in blanket terms: as an utterly regressive dilution of local democracy; as an extension of conservative political technology by which state welfare is denuded in favour of market-led individualism; and as a further politicised subjectification of the charitable self. Such seemingly hegemonic grammars of critique can ignore or underestimate the progressive possibilities for creating new ethical and political spaces in amongst the neoliberal canvas. In this paper we investigate the localism agenda using alternative interpretative grammars that are more open to the recognition of interstitial politics of resistance and experimentation that are springing up within, across, and beyond formatio...