Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HUNG (Hunger Bonds: Food Banks, Families and the Feeding of Poverty)
Reporting period: 2019-11-01 to 2021-10-31
What is the problem being addressed?
Among European countries, the UK registered a dramatic rise in food poverty: recent estimates suggest that around 3 million people live in households where someone has to skip some meals, while food insecurity has quadrupled, extending to 16% of the British population. This rise has been paralleled by the proliferation of food support providers all over the country as the number of adults and children resorting to food aid experienced an unprecedented growth. The COVID-19 crisis further confirmed the centrality of UK food charities in addressing financial precarity and food poverty, as increases in the number of food parcels distributed were reported from several charitable organizations. The Trussell Trust, the Salvation Army and the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN), to name just a few well-known food aid networks, all reported a growth in the number of requests for food parcels, and during the early days of the first lockdown called for food and monetary donations, fearing that these would probably drop. For instance, IFAN food banks reported a 177% increase in the number of three-day emergency food parcels distributed in May 2020, comparing this with May 2019. Set against this backdrop, project “Hunger Bonds” studies how food support providers in the Greater Manchester Area have responded to the food poverty emergency spurred from the COVID19 crisis. In Greater Manchester alone, the GM Poverty Alliance identified more than 200 active food providers in 2019, and the number increased during the pandemic.
Why is it important for society?
Despite food charities have become central organizations for supporting people living in poverty in upper income countries all over the world, there is still a lack of knowledge on how the sector works, why certain types of food support provision are chosen instead of others (e.g. food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens), and how they have reacted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK, despite having become a sort of "parallel" or "shadow" welfare state, research has not fully depicted how the sector operates, and how food charities are simultanously in a situation of cooperation and competition. The reasearch unveils the inner working of the sector and by doing so it provides a theoretically-informed account that can be used to compare charitable food provision systems across Europe and beyond.
What are the overall objectives?
The research uses first-hand survey data, network data, dozens of interviews with food support providers directors, spokespersons, and stakeholder to understand how the food charity sector reorganized to face the crisis; In particular, the project:
1. Provides an in-depth account on the way food charities in Greater Manchester adapted to the COVID-19 crisis
2. Illustrates the inner working of the sector, the alliances and frictions between different food charities and their continuous struggle between competition and cooperation
3. Studies the web of influence, support, conflict and interdependence between the charities based in Greater Manchester
Among European countries, the UK registered a dramatic rise in food poverty: recent estimates suggest that around 3 million people live in households where someone has to skip some meals, while food insecurity has quadrupled, extending to 16% of the British population. This rise has been paralleled by the proliferation of food support providers all over the country as the number of adults and children resorting to food aid experienced an unprecedented growth. The COVID-19 crisis further confirmed the centrality of UK food charities in addressing financial precarity and food poverty, as increases in the number of food parcels distributed were reported from several charitable organizations. The Trussell Trust, the Salvation Army and the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN), to name just a few well-known food aid networks, all reported a growth in the number of requests for food parcels, and during the early days of the first lockdown called for food and monetary donations, fearing that these would probably drop. For instance, IFAN food banks reported a 177% increase in the number of three-day emergency food parcels distributed in May 2020, comparing this with May 2019. Set against this backdrop, project “Hunger Bonds” studies how food support providers in the Greater Manchester Area have responded to the food poverty emergency spurred from the COVID19 crisis. In Greater Manchester alone, the GM Poverty Alliance identified more than 200 active food providers in 2019, and the number increased during the pandemic.
Why is it important for society?
Despite food charities have become central organizations for supporting people living in poverty in upper income countries all over the world, there is still a lack of knowledge on how the sector works, why certain types of food support provision are chosen instead of others (e.g. food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens), and how they have reacted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK, despite having become a sort of "parallel" or "shadow" welfare state, research has not fully depicted how the sector operates, and how food charities are simultanously in a situation of cooperation and competition. The reasearch unveils the inner working of the sector and by doing so it provides a theoretically-informed account that can be used to compare charitable food provision systems across Europe and beyond.
What are the overall objectives?
The research uses first-hand survey data, network data, dozens of interviews with food support providers directors, spokespersons, and stakeholder to understand how the food charity sector reorganized to face the crisis; In particular, the project:
1. Provides an in-depth account on the way food charities in Greater Manchester adapted to the COVID-19 crisis
2. Illustrates the inner working of the sector, the alliances and frictions between different food charities and their continuous struggle between competition and cooperation
3. Studies the web of influence, support, conflict and interdependence between the charities based in Greater Manchester
The outbreak of COVID-19 few months after the beginning of the project inevitably affected the aim and the rationale of the research as originally conceived. Hence, in order to implement the action, I moved the focus from the relationship between the "food support provider" and the "food poor" to the relationships between food support providers. Such change of focus allowed me to concentrate on food charities' stakeholders, spokespersons, and directors and to examine the inner working of the sector.
The new research design opened the way to three crucial innovations:
1. For the first time all food support providers (and not just food banks) were considered together in a survey. In fact, while food banks are widely known to the public due to the role of the Trussell Trust – the largest network in the UK – they are by no means the only organizations providing food support.
2. The survey could be potentially escalated to collect data on all the food charities active in the UK and potentially in Europe.
3. For the first time a meso-level sociological account could be provided in order to understand who are the biggest players of the charitable food provision sector, their challengers, and how to competition and cooperation are simultaneously at work.
The research was based on the following data:
- Survey data collected on food support providers active in Greater Manchester
- 42 1 hour-long interviews with food charities' directors, stakeholders and spokesperson
- Development of a mutual recognition network dataset of food charities based in Greater Manchester using Twitter follow ties
The following scientific outputs have been published, are under review or under preparation:
- 1 paper published in Agriculture and Human Values
- 1 paper with minor revisions from Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy
- 1 paper under review in Organization Studies
- 1 paper under review in Data in Brief
- 2 papers under preparation
Throughout the implementation of the action I have engaged several audiences in different types of dissemination activities. These permitted to:
- Increase knowledge on the central role of food charities in tackling the crisis during the emergency
- Explain how sociology gives us the conceptual tool to understand why food charities are so central and what we can do to move forward
- Organize a discussion between different food charities to reflect on the alliances and frictions within the sector.
In order to disseminate information on my project to citizens and stakeholders I have organized/participated to the following activities:
10 August 2020: Participation to the Greater Manchester Poverty Alliance (GMPA) Event “Communities doing it for themselves”
5 February 2020: Webinar held at the Holy Cross College, Bury. Audience: Upper secondary students.
9-10 September 2021: Organization of the BSA early career event “Towards Greater Food? Taking Stock of Food Support in the COVID-19 crisis”.
22-26 November 2021: Participation to Science is Wonderful! - Presentation of my project to pupils of a primary and a lower secondary school in Italy.
The new research design opened the way to three crucial innovations:
1. For the first time all food support providers (and not just food banks) were considered together in a survey. In fact, while food banks are widely known to the public due to the role of the Trussell Trust – the largest network in the UK – they are by no means the only organizations providing food support.
2. The survey could be potentially escalated to collect data on all the food charities active in the UK and potentially in Europe.
3. For the first time a meso-level sociological account could be provided in order to understand who are the biggest players of the charitable food provision sector, their challengers, and how to competition and cooperation are simultaneously at work.
The research was based on the following data:
- Survey data collected on food support providers active in Greater Manchester
- 42 1 hour-long interviews with food charities' directors, stakeholders and spokesperson
- Development of a mutual recognition network dataset of food charities based in Greater Manchester using Twitter follow ties
The following scientific outputs have been published, are under review or under preparation:
- 1 paper published in Agriculture and Human Values
- 1 paper with minor revisions from Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy
- 1 paper under review in Organization Studies
- 1 paper under review in Data in Brief
- 2 papers under preparation
Throughout the implementation of the action I have engaged several audiences in different types of dissemination activities. These permitted to:
- Increase knowledge on the central role of food charities in tackling the crisis during the emergency
- Explain how sociology gives us the conceptual tool to understand why food charities are so central and what we can do to move forward
- Organize a discussion between different food charities to reflect on the alliances and frictions within the sector.
In order to disseminate information on my project to citizens and stakeholders I have organized/participated to the following activities:
10 August 2020: Participation to the Greater Manchester Poverty Alliance (GMPA) Event “Communities doing it for themselves”
5 February 2020: Webinar held at the Holy Cross College, Bury. Audience: Upper secondary students.
9-10 September 2021: Organization of the BSA early career event “Towards Greater Food? Taking Stock of Food Support in the COVID-19 crisis”.
22-26 November 2021: Participation to Science is Wonderful! - Presentation of my project to pupils of a primary and a lower secondary school in Italy.
Progress beyond the state of art and potential impact
Research on food poverty and food charities lacked a meso-level perspective that could account for the inner work of the organizations, and that could potentially allow for a comparison between the different food charities sectors across countries. The project has now created a new space for scholarly debate, and the papers show the importance of considering the role of and the relations between food charities to comprehend the phenomenon of food poverty.
Concurrently, the results of the project should give intellectual nourishment to food charities' workers, as they seem still unaware of the tremendous political capital they have accumulated since the Great Recession. Such political capital, I believe, could be used to influence public policy to a much greater extent, and to indicate the best practices to end (food) poverty once and for all.
Research on food poverty and food charities lacked a meso-level perspective that could account for the inner work of the organizations, and that could potentially allow for a comparison between the different food charities sectors across countries. The project has now created a new space for scholarly debate, and the papers show the importance of considering the role of and the relations between food charities to comprehend the phenomenon of food poverty.
Concurrently, the results of the project should give intellectual nourishment to food charities' workers, as they seem still unaware of the tremendous political capital they have accumulated since the Great Recession. Such political capital, I believe, could be used to influence public policy to a much greater extent, and to indicate the best practices to end (food) poverty once and for all.