Abstract
The proliferation of emergency food programs in the United States over the past decade and a half has created a dilemma for advocates and others who approach issues of social provision from the standpoint of a commitment to social justice. While the soup kitchens, food pantries, food banks, and food rescue programs that comprise the emergency food system may be able to meet some of the urgent, immediate needs of poor people, they do so in ways that may further undermine rights and entitlements and erode the cultural basis of support for the welfare state. Should advocates of distributive justice work to improve such emergency programs, ignore them, or call for their abolition? This paper explores the history of advocates' involvement with emergency food, assesses the strengths and weaknesses of emergency food programs from a social justice standpoint, and offers some guidelines for action.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beckmann, David and Richard A. Hoehn.Transforming the Politics of Hunger. Washington, DC: Bread for the World Institute, 1992.
Berry. Jeffery M. “Consumers and the Hunger Lobby.” In Don F. Hadwiger and Ross Talbot, eds.Food Policy and Farm Programs, Proceedings of the National Academy of Pol. Science, Vol. 34, 1982.
Bread for the World Institute.Hunger 1994: Transforming the Politics of Hunger. Fourth Annual Report on the State of World Hunger. Silver Spring, MD, 1993.
Breglio, Vincent.Hunger in America: The voters' perspective. Lantham, MD: Research/Strategy/Management Inc., 1992.
Campfens, Hubert. “The Marginal Urban Sector: Survival and Development Initiatives in Lima, Peru.” Research Paper 161. Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto. January, 1987.
Clancy, Katherine and Jean Bowering. “The Need for Emergency Food: Poverty Problems and Policy Responses,”Journal of Nutrition Education, Vol. 24, No. 1, Jan./Feb., 1992.
Cohen, Barbara and Martha Burt.Eliminating Hunger: Food Security Policy for the 1990s. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 1989.
Ellis, Edward Robb.A Nation in Torment: The Great American Depression, 1929–1939. New York: Capricorn Books, 1971.
Food and Hunger Hotline.Report of NYC Poverty, Emergency Feeding and Government Funds. June, 1987.
Food For Survival,1993 Annual Report. NY: New York.
Gil, David. G.Unraveling Social Policy. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing Co., 1973.
Glasser, Irene.More Than Bread; the Ethnography of a Soup Kitchen. Tuscaloosa: U. of Alabama Press, 1988.
Interagency Task Force on Food and Hunger.Unfinished Business: Report of the Interagency Task Force on Food and Hunger. New York: Human Resources Administration, 1989.
Kelly, Gayle, Barbara Rauschenbach, and Cathy Campbell.Private Food Assistance in New York State: Challenges for the 1990s Ithaca: Cornell University, 1989.
Lipsky, Michael and Marc Thibodeau. “Feeding the Hungry with Surplus Commodities,”Political Science Quarterly Vol. 103, No. 2, 1988.
Lipsky, Michael and Steven Smith. “When Social Problems are Treated as Emergencies,”The Social Service Review, Vol. 63, No 1, March 1989.
Marcuse, Peter. “Neutralizing Hunger.”Socialist Review Vol. 18, No. 1, January–March, 1988.
Millar, Bruce. "Soup kitchens, food banks face shortage of food,"Chronicle of Philanthropy Vol. II, No. 5, Dec. 12, 1989.
Norman, Diane. “Eliminating Hunger in A Society With Surplus Food,”O. N. E. Bulletin 10 (Fall, 1990): 10–12.
Poppendieck, Janet E.Breadlines Knee Deep in Wheat: Food Assistance in the Great Depression. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. 1986.
—— “Policy, Advocacy, and Justice: The Case of Food Assistance Reform.” In David Gil and Eva Gil, eds.,Toward Social and Economic Justice. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing, 1985.
Rosenthal, Ellen. Director, New York City Food and Hunger Hotline. Interview, (April, 1992).
Second Harvest.1993 Annual Report. Chicago, IL: Second Harvest, 1993.
Sidel, Ruth.Women and Children Last. New York: Penguin Books, Revised Edition, 1992.
VanAmburg Group, Inc.Second Harvest 1993 National Research Study, Erie, PA, 1993.
Whittaker, William and Jean M. Andrews. “Private Food Assistance for Maine's Hungry,”Explorations, A Journal of Research and Public Service. University of Maine, Vol. VI, No. 2, Orono, ME, 1991.
Worley, Edmond V.Report on the Conclusions and Recommendations of the Planning Study of the Emergency Food System in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Cleveland, Ohio: The Greater Cleveland Committee on Hunger, 1992.
Wuthnow, Robert.Acts of Compassion. Princeton University Press, 1991.
Additional information
Jan Poppendieck is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Hunter College of the City University of New York and Director of the Hunter College Center for the Study of Family Policy. She is the author ofBreadlines Knee-Deep in Wheat: Food Assistance in the Great Depression (Rutgers, 1986) and several articles on hunger, food assistance, and public policy. She is chair of the Board of Directors of the Community Food Resource Center in New York City and is active in the Association for the Study of Food and Society. She is currently at work on a book on emergency food in the United States (Reinventing Charity: Emergency Food in American Culture).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Poppendieck, J. Dilemmas of emergency food: A guide for the perplexed. Agric Hum Values 11, 69–76 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01530418
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01530418