How the Private Food Assistance Network Evolved: Interactions between Public and Private Responses to Hunger

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Delivery of assistance to the poor in the United States has changed drastically in the past 25 years. Although the availability of cash assistance has narrowed, the availability of food assistance has broadened. The most substantial change in assistance available to the poor has been the emergence of food pantries as a source of free food to prepare at home, which happened almost concurrent to changes in the operation of the Food Stamp Program. The authors argue that the cessation of the Food Stamp Program’s buy-in requirement contributed to a chronic demand for private food assistance and that, in many respects, private food assistance substitutes for an inadequate public food safety net. The authors conclude with recommendations for strengthening the domestic food safety net.