INSIGHTS FROM THE AUTHOR: JACQUELYN HEUER

2022 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-24
Author(s):  
David Himmelgreen ◽  
Jacquelyn Heuer
Keyword(s):  
Food Banks

How Food Banks Help Americans Who Have Trouble Getting Enough to Eat was previously published on The Conversation and is reprinted here with permission from the authors and The Conversation. The original article (with additional links) can be accessed at URL:<https://theconversation.com/how-food-banks-help-americans-who-have-trouble-getting-enough-to-eat-148150>.

scholarly journals Food Bank Donations in the United States: A Landscape Review of Federal Policies

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3764
Author(s):  
Katelin M. Hudak ◽  
Emily Friedman ◽  
Joelle Johnson ◽  
Sara E. Benjamin-Neelon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nutritional Quality ◽  
Food System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Healthy Food ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
Food Bank ◽  
Federal Policies ◽  
Food And Beverage

Rates of food insecurity have increased substantially in the United States (US), and more families are turning to the charitable food system to help meet their needs. Prior studies have examined the nutritional quality of foods offered through food banks, but little is known about what government policies may shape the healthy food donation landscape. The purpose of this study was to review US federal policies that impact food and beverage donations to food banks and assess whether policies encourage healthy food donations. In spring 2020, two researchers independently reviewed federal food and beverage donation policies using predefined search terms in two legal databases. We identified six categories of policies based on the existing food donation literature and themes that emerged in the policy review. We identified 42 federal policies spanning six categories that addressed food and beverage donations to food banks. The largest category was “government programs,” with 19 (45%) policies. The next largest category was “donation via schools,” with 12 (29%) policies. However, no policies specifically addressed the nutritional quality of food donations. There is an opportunity for the federal government to strengthen food bank donation policies and improve the nutritional quality of donated foods and beverages.

Strategien zur Bekämpfung von Lebensmittelverschwendung im Lichte des wohlgeordneten Rechts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Wirbel
Keyword(s):  
Food Waste ◽  
Food Sharing ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
Legal Limits ◽  
Legislative Proposal ◽  
Dumpster Diving ◽  
First Time ◽  
Legal Consequences

For the first time there is a legal investigation into food waste. Here, the measures of food sharing, food banks, Dumpster Diving and leftover restaurants are classified in the system of food and waste law and e.g the characteristics of a food business and the legal consequences are examined. In addition, based on a French regulation, a legislative proposal to combat food waste is presented and the national and european legal limits of the proposal are discussed.

Food Aid – Normalising the Abnormal in Finland

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 471-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiina Silvasti
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
Food Aid ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
Welfare Regime ◽  
Security Costs ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
Food Charity ◽  
First Time ◽  
Deep Recession

In Finland, food banks and bread lines emerged for the first time during the deep recession in the mid-1990s and, since then, have become permanent. This was partly an outcome of cutting or freezing social security costs during the economic slump, but there has also been an increasingly explicit transformation in national social policy. However, the emergence and persistence of food aid cannot be explained purely as a social and poverty policy issue. This article examines charity food aid as a solution to the hunger problem within the Nordic welfare regime and traces connections linking the establishment of food charity to the prevailing food system. This article focuses on different policy actions and economic developments that took place independently during the 1990s, producing, apparently accidently and without conscious co-ordination, entrenchment of charitable food aid in Finland.

scholarly journals The Role of the Food Banks in Saving Freshwater Resources through Reducing Food Waste: The Case of the Food Bank of Navarra, Spain

Foods ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Josemi G. Penalver ◽  
Maite M. Aldaya
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Food Waste ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Waste Reduction ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
Food Bank ◽  
Food Loss ◽  
Total Food ◽  
Food Wastage

In the year 2011, the FAO estimated that food loss and waste reached one third of the total food produced worldwide. Since then, numerous studies have been published characterizing this problem and reflecting on its repercussions, not only social, but also environmental. Food wastage triggers unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation or loss of biodiversity. This study aims to quantify the water-related benefits associated with food loss and waste reduction by studying the Food Bank of Navarra (FBN). For this purpose, the water footprint assessment manual has been followed. First, the water footprint of the activities of the FBN has been analysed for the year 2018 (scenario with the FBN). A comparative analysis has been carried out between the scenario with the FBN and a theoretical scenario without the action of the FBN. This has allowed us to highlight the benefits associated with the activity of this entity. The FBN not only avoided the waste of 2.7 thousand tons of food suitable for consumption in 2018, but also avoided the unnecessary use of more than 3.2 million m3 of freshwater. As a result of the present investigation, it can be stated that promoting food banks, which avoid food waste, would be an effective way to contribute to the protection and conservation of water resources.

scholarly journals Starving to be a student: The experiences of food insecurity among undergraduate students in Nova Scotia, Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-125
Author(s):  
Meredith Bessey ◽  
Lesley Frank ◽  
Patricia L. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Funding Programs ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
Student Funding

Household food insecurity (HFI) exists when access to food is inadequate or insecure due to financial constraints, and is an issue of increasing concern among postsecondary students who face barriers to food access due to precarious finances. The goal of the current study was to explore the experience of HFI among university students in Nova Scotia (NS), including barriers and facilitators, and potential policy solutions to the issue from the perspective of students. Twelve semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with students experiencing HFI from across NS. Phenomenological analysis was undertaken, using Radimer’s model of HFI as a theoretical framework. Key aspects of the experience of food insecurity in this sample included all four dimensions of Radimer’s model of HFI: quantitative, qualitative, psychological, and social. The main contributing factor to student’s difficulties accessing food was inadequate and precarious finances. Students highlighted various coping mechanisms, such as utilizing food banks, budgeting their money, and buying food in bulk. This study is an important next step to a better understanding of the experience of student HFI in NS, building on previous quantitative research. Findings suggest that while the experience of HFI has many similarities with the experience in other populations, students experience tensions between independence and reliance on their family and have unique struggles related to government financial supports. The findings point to necessary policy changes related to student funding programs, and suggest that relying on campus food banks to solve the issue of HFI among students is inadequate.

Linking SNAP to Food Security: Exploring Reinstating a Purchase Requirement and Tying Benefits to the Low-Cost Food Plan

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Osborne Daponte
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
The United States ◽  
Food Assistance ◽  
Food Banks ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
Food Pantries ◽  
Structural Risk ◽  
Emergency Food Assistance ◽  
Nutrition Assistance

AbstractThe United States has a food assistance structure that, by design, does not assure that households receiving food assistance will be food secure, is deeply inefficient, and is at financial and structural risk. The two most common forms of food assistance used today are Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program) and charitable food assistance in the form of groceries (provided through a network of food banks, food pantries, and other related programs). Approximately 43 million persons participate in SNAP and nearly one-third of them also rely on a food pantry for groceries. The use of charitable food assistance by persons relying on SNAP demonstrates that SNAP’s benefit level and structure does not sufficiently result in food security. The article argues that reinstating a purchase requirement for SNAP and increasing the level of benefits provided to SNAP participants would increase the food security of participants, alleviate the chronic demand for food from food banks and food pantries, and ultimately allow the charitable food assistance network to better accomplish its goal of providing emergency food assistance to the needy.

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