Whiteness and Food Charity: Experiences of Food Insecure African-American Kansas City Residents Navigating Nutrition Education Programs

Abstract

This article examines the experiences of African-American food-aid seekers as they navigate food charity programming that includes mandatory nutrition education. This model of food charity provisioning—in which receipt of aid is tied to education—is increasingly common in the United States. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2015 and 2018 in a nationally replicated nutrition education program in Kansas City, this article argues that these models of food charity function as “white public spaces” (Page and Thomas 1994), with significant negative impacts on their efficacy. It argues that white public space is created in these programs through race avoidant language concerning “food deserts” and nutritional education. These programmatic foci are both ineffective at addressing urban hunger and create racially discriminatory space within food charity programming. The article offers concrete suggestions for improving food charity programming and disrupting white privilege in food charity spaces, made by African-American food-aid seekers themselves.