Stirring up lessons for food activists [Book review

Abstract

The book Stirrings examines the anti-hunger efforts of the food movement in the latter part of the 20th century for lessons in their suc­cesses and failures, as well as relevance to the modern food movement in America. Its six chap­ters examine four food nonprofits’ responses to hunger and its causes in urban New York City (NYC). The diversity of these case studies allowed for multidimensional analyses and insights of how groups of people can work to challenge policy pri­ori­ties and change social values that cause hunger. The context of the case studies is established in the introduction by recounting the history and politics of the awareness of hunger and poverty in Amer­ica, the “land of plenty and wealth” during the 1960s, and the subsequent federal government anti-hunger and welfare programs (e.g., War on Poverty and food stamps programs). This context also includes the drastic reductions of these pro­grams, first by the austerity budget measures of the mid-1970s and then by the rise of neoliberal gov­ernment policies starting in the 1980s. This infor­mation is intended to inform the reader of the raison d’etre for the rise and diversity of food activism movement described in this book. . . .