“Free” food with a side of shame? Combating stigma in emergency food assistance programs in the quest for food justice

Abstract

Anti-hunger advocates and food geographers have often overlooked the role of emergency food assistance in struggles for food justice, dismissing food assistance as addressing symptoms rather than root causes of food insecurity. Yet, the vast network of food pantries and other free food programs are more than a stop-gap measure for millions of Americans — and thus warrant a closer look at how their practices, policies and spaces feel in practice and with what implications towards food justice goals. In this paper, we argue that barriers to emotionally-accessible food, in the form of neoliberal stigma around “free” food, play a prominent role in shaping peoples’ experiences with food assistance. Based on participatory research with a food redistribution non-profit in Boulder, Colorado, we discuss how the emotional burdens of food insecurity manifest in individual experiences with emergency food assistance programs and staff, leading to isolation and disconnection which actively inhibit more inclusive food systems. This research responds to scholarship in geographies of food and emotion, contributing analysis into how discomforts of (lacking/receiving) food are experienced viscerally. Furthermore, we discuss implications of the emotional (dis)comforts of food assistance when examining the role of emergency food assistance in broader struggles for food justice. To this end, we point to alternative practices in food assistance programs which might actively counteract narratives of neoliberal subjectivities, while simultaneously broadening the food justice community in terms of who feels comfortable participating in, and shaping, more equitable food systems.