Anti-hunger activists criticize charitable food programs for being undignified and unable to end hunger. They say that simply giving away food humiliates the poor without addressing the cause of hunger, which is poverty. Thus, they tend to advocate for ensuring, through government programs, that everybody has enough money or vouchers to purchase all the food they need.
But distributing food in ways other than selling it brings benefits beyond hunger relief. In a new JAFSCD article, "Non-market distribution serves society in ways markets cannot: A tentative defense of food charity from small-town New England," University of Vermont (UVM) and Dartmouth College researchers draw on interviews with food distributors and recipients in Vermont to show that non-market food distribution—that is, giving away food—brings community members closer to each other and closer to an imagined ideal in which food is not for sale at all. Corresponding author Sam Bliss can be contacted at samcbliss@gmail.com.
KEY FINDINGS
Led by Sam Bliss of UVM, Flora Krivak-Tetley of Dartmouth College, and a team of students, the study was conducted in Brattleboro, Vermont, and surrounding municipalities, where at least 42 institutions distribute food for free—one for every 780 residents of the study area.
Contrary to the liberal utopia imagined by anti-hunger advocates, in which everybody has enough money to buy all their food, participants in non-market distribution envisioned a radical utopia in which all or most food is available free of charge. When asked what, if anything, was special about food that is not for sale, one interviewee said simply, “Food should be free"; five others expressed the same sentiment.
Participants said that non-market food distribution strengthens relationships, fosters resilience, puts edible-but-not-sellable food to use, and aligns with an alternative, non-market vision of a desirable food future. Market food systems, in which food is distributed via selling it, cannot replicate these benefits of giving food away.
Yet, although the people running food charities said that non-market distribution offers special benefits that markets don’t, their food pantries and soup kitchens tend to imitate supermarkets and restaurants—their market counterparts. They do this in pursuit of dignity. Purchasing food is considered the dignified way to feed oneself in a market economy, and markets allow people in unequal situations to interact as equals, since everyone’s dollar is worth $1. So charities mimic the aesthetics, abundance, anonymity, and consumer choice of markets.
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When charities imitate markets, it reinforces the idea that receiving food as a gift is undignified.
Additionally, non-market distributors will not realize the special benefits of giving food away if they make believe that they are selling it. A food pantry imitating the aesthetics of a supermarket will not manage to rescue much food that the retailer discards for aesthetic reasons. Anonymous, individualistic market environments—which make people act selfish, according to much experimental research—cannot be expected to engender the relationships of community resilience that interviewees associated with non-market distribution.
So, Bliss and coauthors recommend that non-market food distributors such as food pantries and soup kitchens emphasize the benefits specific to giving food away rather than suppressing those benefits by mimicking markets.
Still, none of this addresses the issue that receiving assistance can be embarrassing for those who most need it. To make gifts of food dignified, the study’s authors recommend setting up non-market distribution in ways that treat everybody as equal. That means offering food to all comers instead of making recipients prove they’re poor. And it means everyone eating together, at the same table.
The researchers hypothesize that free food feels more dignified when people of all social classes receive it together. Perhaps that will be their next study.
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Why food charities shouldn’t model themselves after grocery stores and restaurants: Giving food away puts unsellable food to use and fosters relationships of community resilience. How might food charities overcome their dignity problem? Read the new JAFSCD article for free: https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2023.131.016
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