The German Food Bank System and Its Users-A Cross-Sectional Study.

Anja Simmet,Peter Tinnemann,Nanette Stroebele-Benschop

doi:10.3390/ijerph15071485

Abstract

Although food banks are a well-known resource for low-income people struggling to meet their food needs, they have rarely been investigated on a large scale. This study aims to contribute to the actual debate about the potential and limitations of food banks to decrease the prevalence of food insecurity by providing a representative picture of the German food bank system and its users. Publicly accessible data were used to map residents, public welfare recipients, and food banks. In addition, a comprehensive survey was distributed to all 934 “Tafel” food banks. The results show that nearly all residents and welfare recipients have access to at least one food bank located in the districts in which they reside. Differences in the density of food banks exist between eastern and western Germany. Food banks provide mainly healthy fresh food, but they heavily rely on food donations from local retailers and on volunteer labor. Although changes in the number of user households by income seem to mirror trends in the number of welfare recipients, food bank users appear to represent only a fraction of the food-insecure population in Germany. Food banks might have the potential to improve users’ diet and food security, but they are not able to reach all food-insecure residents in Germany.

Highlights

Over the last decades, food banks have become a critical food source for people with lowincome in many high-income countries including the USA [1], Canada [2], Australia [3], and in several European countries [4,5,6,7]
Results of the geographic analyses will be shown before presenting the descriptive survey results including services provided by food banks, food bank users, food distributed by food banks, food bank workers, and challenges of food banks
It appears that changes in the number of food bank users and their source of income partly mirror changes in the at-risk-of-poverty rate and social welfare in Germany, but there obviously are unknown factors influencing the usage of food banks

Summary

Introduction

Food banks have become a critical food source for people with lowincome in many high-income countries including the USA [1], Canada [2], Australia [3], and in several European countries [4,5,6,7]. Despite the differences in the social security systems across high-income countries, there seem to be commonalities in the characterization of food bank users. In Germany, the food bank system is called “Tafel” (table) and was initiated in 1993 to help homeless people in Berlin. Over 930 local branches of the Tafel food banks have been established throughout the country and they no longer limit assistance to homeless people but assist people with a very low or no income. Food banks usually apply eligibility criteria such as an income at or below the federal unemployment pay (Arbeitslosengeld II) and residence in the coverage area of the food bank [9,10], but in contrast to food banks in other countries such as in the UK [11] and

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