Lifelong Emergency? The Food Bank in an Era of Institutionalized Food Charity in Toronto

• Main Author: Anna Sofia Salonen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlage 2016-05-01
• Series: Diaconia
• Subjects: charity; faith-based organizations; food bank; food insecurity; canada
• Online Access: https://vr-elibrary.de/doi/10.13109/diac.2016.7.1.27

The first Canadian food banks started in the 1980s because of increasing poverty due to the economic crisis. They mainly shared the common understanding that their work was intended as a supplement, not as long-term solution to food insecurity. However, three decades later, neither food banks nor food insecurity have disappeared. Today, the proliferation of the food charity system begs the question of how the new food banks view their work in the era of institutionalized food charity. The data consist of eight key informant interviews carried out in 2014 with nine people in leadership positions in the recently initiated food banks in Toronto. The interviews were analysed by applying Goffman’s frame analysis. The interviewees discussed their work through four frames: feeding the hungry, building the community, advocating for change, and putting religious beliefs and teachings from pulpit to practice. The faith frame of food banking interlocks the other three frames. Food assistance is heavily rooted in the social and cultural constructions of hunger as amatter for charity, often with strong religious underpinnings. The findings encourage the food charity agencies to critically reflect the aims, practices and implications of the charitable work that they engage in.