Food Banks and Food Security: Welfare Reform, Human Rights and Social Policy. Lessons from Canada?

ID:	HARP-299
Title:	Food Banks and Food Security: Welfare Reform, Human Rights and Social Policy. Lessons from Canada?
Source:	Social Policy and Administration, 2002, 36, 6, Dec, 648-663
Parties:
Dispute Resolution Organ:
Year:	2002
Pages:	0
Author(s):
Keywords:	Canada, human rights, health, ideology, food bank, social assistance, food security, charitable industry/donation
Abstract:	In the past 20 years, food banks have established themselves as one of the fastest-growing charitable industries in First World societies. As institutionalized centers or clearing houses for the redistribution of donated & surplus food they have emerged as a key frontline response to the growing problem of food poverty & inequality. As welfare states have been restructured & cut back & basic entitlements have been denied, food banks have become secondary extensions of weakened social safety nets. This paper explores the growth of food banking in Canada & analyses its role in terms of advancing the human right to food, its effectiveness in achieving food security, & the extent to which it contributes to, &/or counters, the increasing emphasis by governments on welfare reform policies informed by neoconservative ideology. Food banks are examined from the perspective of their origins & purposes, institutionalization, usage, food distributed, & effectiveness. The rise of food banks in Canada is concrete evidence both of the breakdown of the social safety net & the commodification of social assistance. As such, they undermine the state’s obligation, as ratified in international conventions, to respect, protect, & fulfill the human right to food. They enable governments to look the other way & neglect food poverty & nutritional health & well-being. A possible future role for food banks in countries where they are already established lies in public education & advocacy, but their institutionalization makes this seem an unlikely course. In countries where they are in their infancy, the question of whether to support their development should be a matter of urgent public debate. 41 References. Adapted from the source document.
Secured:	False
Download Article:	Available here