Soup Kitchens Research Articles

Women who frequent soup kitchens: A cultural, gender-mainstreaming perspective

Summary The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the meanings Israeli women who frequent soup assign to this experience. The study is based on participant observation and 16 recorded interviews with women in eight soup kitchens in Israel. The study adopts a gender-mainstreaming approach to food security that privileges the life knowledge of women living in poverty. The grounded theory method was employed in the collection and analysis of the data-field notes and interviews. Findings Four main categories regarding women’s constructions of motivations for frequenting soup kitchens emerged: (1) nutritional needs, (2) feeding others, (3) overall economic strategy, and (4) social needs. The issue of dealing with shame is also explored from a humanist and cultural perspective. Applications The findings indicate the need for social workers to consider food security, and eating arrangements when making assessments, evaluating interventions and developing programs and policies in all practice settings. Social workers need to provide information about community food services that are accessible and user-friendly for their women clients who deal with food insecurity and social isolation. Soup kitchens should be structured to allow for active participation of the service users in the administration and operation of food security programs. Finally, social workers should adopt a critical, feminist position regarding women’s use of soup kitchens as an oppressive survival strategy that stems from inequality in gender and class power relations.

Diet Quality of Clients of a Soup Kitchen

This study discerned the impact of a meal donation on the total diet quality of clients of a soup kitchen. A total of 110 adults were selected randomly from a soup kitchen in Central Texas. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, food frequency questionnaire and a list of meal donations. Diet quality and food servings of the original diet, meal donation and total dietary intake were estimated via both the HEI-2010 and 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines. The soup kitchen provided a daily meal, which included fruit, cheese, egg, and bagel, but did not contain any vegetables or meat. Mean diet quality for their original diet was modest (HEI-2010 = 55.25). The extra meal donated by the soup kitchen increased the diet quality of the total diet by 10%, and added fat-soluble vitamins and essential minerals. Health professionals should support these soup kitchens, by volunteering and providing advice to the directors about the importance of offering a variety of healthy foods.

Not just solidarity providers: investigating the political dimension of Alternative Action Organisations (AAOs) during the economic crisis in Greece

The current economic crisis was a turning point, for the worse, in the everyday reality for a huge sector of the Greek population. Austerity-stricken Greece is characterised by the collapse of the wel-fare state and by increasingly uncovered basic needs. The answer to this humanitarian problem has been given by thousands of formal and informal initiatives and organisations and their solidarity actions, such as barter networks, food banks, consumers-producers networks, soup kitchens, new cooperatives, social economy enterprises and free legal advice. Despite the role of these initiatives and organisations in cover-ing needs, there are also signs that some of them make claims for social and/or political change. Conse-quently, some of these groups and organisations function in the political arena. This paper aims to map and analyse Alternative Action Organisations (AAOs), which are engaged with solidarity and political ac-tions, as well. It compares 'political AAOs' (engaged in protest, awareness raising and lobbying activities) and 'non-political AAOs' (engaged exclusively in solidarity actions) with respect to some of their main fea-tures. Moreover, the paper aims, through explanatory analysis, to uncover the predictors associated with AAOs' engagement in political activities.

Geographic variation in barriers to the usage of food assistance in Indiana

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study examines geographic differences in the provision of food assistance in Indiana. The specific focus is on barriers which may prevent those who are food insecure from accessing assistance. Directors (n = 28) of food pantries and soup kitchens in urban, suburban, and rural counties were interviewed about their experiences providing food assistance. Geographic variation was found in perceived barriers to accessing assistance, although similar barriers were reported across regions. Directors pointed to several common barriers, the most frequently mentioned were pride/stigma and geographic access/transportation. Understanding these barriers is an important first step in creating policy solutions to ensure those who are food insecure are able to access assistance.

Newton Arvin and the Police: Contexts for The Scarlet Professor

Newton Arvin and the Police: Contexts for <i>The Scarlet Professor</i>

Words We Don't Say by K. J. Reilly

Reviewed by: Words We Don't Say by K. J. Reilly Karen Coats Reilly, K. J. Words We Don't Say. Hyperion, 2018 [288p] ISBN 978-1-368-01633-9 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-10 Guilt, grief, and trauma find many modes of expression; for Joel, these include focusing on the grief of others to deflect from his own while writing countless text messages that he never sends. He writes to Eli, highlighting the reasons for his massive crush on her; to his principal, offering confessions and unrealistic solutions for problems that can't be solved; and to his friend Andy, filling him in on the mundane details of his daily life. At his work at a soup kitchen, he tries to communicate with a silent veteran he calls Rooster, then tracks Rooster to his ramshackle dwelling, bringing him socks and food; Rooster returns the favor by giving Joel a gun. The gun fascinates Joel as much as it scares him and eventually becomes one of the catalysts for bringing Joel's grief to a place where he can admit it openly and begin to heal. While the subjects here are heavy, including hunger, homelessness, PTSD, and the deaths of loved ones, Joel's voice has a grim, ironic humor that spins from the serious to the quotidian concerns of a sophomore in high school reeling from the aftermath of personal loss. This loss leads to him feeling the weight for the first time of humanity's grief and committing to mitigate as much of it as he can. With its spirit of ethical social commitment and its exploration of the what-ifs of being left behind after the death of your important person, this will have broad appeal for teen readers. KC Copyright © 2018 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Reflections on BDS

Reflections on BDS

Pursuing the Mission: How Homeless Veterans Manage Chronic Disease

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the process by which homeless veterans manage their chronic health problems. In the United States, over 550,000 people experience homelessness on any given night. Of these, over 11% are veterans of the military, many whom suffer from at least one chronic disease. Study participants included male homeless veterans with at least one chronic health problem recruited at a Veterans Affairs emergency department, a homeless shelter, and a soup kitchen. Semi-structured interviews with 32 veterans from the Vietnam/post-Vietnam era were audio-recorded, verified, and coded resulting in a theory entitled “pursuing the mission,” which describes and explains four ways (deferring, exploring, embarking, embracing) they manage their chronic health problems. The findings from this study provide insight from individuals living this experience and will help guide the future delivery of health care to homeless veterans.

Thierschstraße 41: Hitler the Lodger, a Jewish Landlord, and a Restitution Problem

Paul Hoser Thierschstraße 41 Hitler the Lodger, a Jewish Landlord, and a Restitution Problem From the Barracks to a Rented Room Adolf Hitler was discharged from the army on March 31, 1920. Up until this point, he had received his army pay and allowances, plus free lodging and meals.1 He had even chosen not to apply for any benefits to which he might have been entitled.2 It is not known for certain how he supported himself during the subsequent months of 1920. With his discharge into civilian life came a change of address in Munich: Hitler moved from the barracks to a rented room. On May 1, 1920, he moved out of the 2nd Infantry Regiment’s barracks at Lothstraße 29 and into Thierschstraße 41 in the Lehel district of the city.3 He moved into a room on the second floor of this house, which was otherwise occupied by the businessman Ernst Reichert and his wife Maria. The room had been allocated to him by the housing office.4 Hitler was 1 See Volker Ullrich, Adolf Hitler. Biographie, vol. 1: Die Jahre des Aufstiegs 1889–1939, Frankfurt a. M. 2013, p. 109; Othmar Plöckinger, Unter Soldaten und Agitatoren. Hitlers prägende Jahre im deutschen Militär 1918–1920, Paderborn 2013, pp. 163–65, 177–78, and Thomas Weber, Wie Adolf Hitler zum Nazi wurde. Vom unpolitischen Soldaten zum Autor von “Mein Kampf,” Berlin 2016, pp. 262–63. The present English version of this article was shortened by Paul Hoser. It was originally published in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 65 (2017), pp. 131–61. 2 See Ernst Deuerlein, Hitlers Eintritt in die Politik und die Reichswehr, in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 7 (1959), pp. 177–227, here p. 182; a facsimile of Hitler’s wartime personnel roster is reprinted on p. 190. 3 On life in the barracks, see Anton Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Weg begann in München 1913–1923, expanded new edition, Munich 2000, p. 217; and on his move to Thierschstraße 41, Archive of the Institute for Contemporary History (Archiv des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte; henceforth: IfZ Archive ), ZS-287, fol. 2, “Protokoll der Unterredung von Georg Franz[-Willing] mit Antonie Reichert, 20.6.1952.” A facsimile of the registration form is reprinted in Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Weg, p. 21, with no source information. 4 IfZ Archive, ZS-287, fols. 2, 4, “Protokoll der Unterredung von Georg Franz[-Willing] mit Antonie Reichert, 20.6.1952.” According to Hermann Esser, it was Joseph Berchtold, as of 1923 the leader of the “Hitler Shock Troops” that later became the SS, who found the room for Hitler. Berchtold’s parents lived next door at No. 39. It is possible that Hitler was tipped off about the 124 Paul Hoser formally registered as the tenant of Maria Reichert’s father, valet Anton Dachs, who was still alive, and whose apartment was opposite that of his daughter.5 After his death, the apartment passed to his widow Karolina. The best-known account of Hitler’s rented room and its furnishings comes from Ernst Hanfstaengl, who had met him in the winter of 1922: The room that he occupied as the tenant of a Frau Reichert was clean and tidy, if somewhat small and cramped and not exactly lavishly furnished. The floor was covered with cheap, worn linoleum and a few small, threadbare rugs. Against the wall opposite the bed, whose bedposts partially obstructed the window, stood a chair and table, as well as some bare wooden shelving housing Hitler’s treasured books.6 Hitler was given breakfast by his landlords, and he read the newspapers while he ate. He generally came home late and got up late the next day.7 At lunchtime, he would go to the Party office in the Sterneckerbräu. He usually ate there, in some other cheap restaurant, or in the public soup kitchen on Theresienstraße.8 The offices of the Münchener Beobachter had been located at Thierschstraße 15 since October 15, 1919.9 Renamed the Völkischer Beobachter on January 3, 1920, the paper was acquired by the publishing house Franz Eher Nachf. on December room by Berchtold, and...

Evidence on Food Control System in Charitable Food Assistance System: A Systematic Scoping Review

Abstract Background: Food control is applicable throughout the entire food system. In this study we describe the entire food system to include the conventional food supply chain as well as the charitable food assistance system. This review aimed at comparing evidence on the food control system of charitable food assistance system in Africa and the rest of the world. Methods: In order to identify the literature, we developed a series of search terms, as well as parameters for including articles to review the literature using PubMed, Google Scholar, Ebscohost (MEDLINE with full text, Academic search complete, MEDLINE) search engines. We obtained additional publications by hand searching. We included studies reported in all languages and published between 1967 and 2018. We included studies if they presented evidence of charitable food assistance system (food banks, food charitable organizations, pantries, community soup kitchens, and emergency shelters). We presented the results of our search using content analysis in order to reveal the emerging themes. We presented results of the review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) chart. We employed Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT) - Version 2011 to appraise the quality of the included studies. Results: Beyond inconsistencies with classification of charitable food assistance system, our study found significant knowledge gaps in crucial areas, including consideration of the food vulnerability cited in 12 articles and vulnerability of beneficiary populations quoted in 13 articles; safety & hygiene inspections addressed in 10 articles; donor exploitation of charitable food assistance system reported in five articles; reliability & predictability of charitable food assistance system cited in four articles; regulation of charitable food assistance system mentioned in 19 articles and food traceability cited in seven articles. Our search yielded a total of 23 articles, which we included in the analysis. Results show that while food is the critical commodity to saving lives, if not controlled properly it can be a deadly weapon, especially to vulnerable populations. Conclusion: With no previous comprehensive review to assess what is known about food control in charitable food assistance system, we undertook a scoping review, focusing on mapping the key concepts, including the main sources and types of evidence available. By drawing conclusions about the overall state of research activity and identifying research gaps and priorities in the existing literature, this study provides a baseline assessment of charitable food assistance system research published in peer-reviewed journals from 1967 to 2018. Funding: The study was funded by the University of KwaZulu-Natal, College of Health Sciences Research scholarship. Declaration of Interest: None declared. Ethical Approval: This study does not include any animal or human participants. Ethics approval and consent to participate is not applicable.

An Examination of the Relationship between Intellectual Capital and Supply Chain Integration in Humanitarian Aid Organizations: A Survey‐Based Investigation of Food Banks

ABSTRACTFood banks are humanitarian aid organizations that collect, organize, and deliver food to nonprofit member agencies and also to individuals to help alleviate the society's hunger problem. The supply chain of food banks is characterized by private sector companies, individual donors and governmental agencies providing monetary support and food inventory on the supply side, and the member agencies such as food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and volunteers delivering support on the demand side. Within the purview of this supply chain, food banks strive to improve their performance, which is commonly measured in terms of the amount of food delivered to the communities in need. Food banks rely on managerial talent that is relatively more constrained than the private sector and also use a voluntary workforce for attaining their performance goals. Considering the unique yet pertinent role of human assets in food banks to manage their supply chain integration initiatives, we employ an intellectual capital framework to analyze the human, organizational, and social capital antecedents of supply chain integration in food banks. Specifically, we suggest that intellectual capital drives supply chain integration in humanitarian organizations. Moreover, we propose specific relationships between the dimensions of intellectual capital. A carefully crafted survey is used to inform our results. The results indicate that human capital significantly impacts social capital, which, in turn, drives all supply chain integration dimensions. We discuss the implications of our findings for managing intellectual capital in the not‐for‐profit sector and offer directions for future research.

Famine food of vegetal origin consumed in the Netherlands during World War II

BackgroundPeriods of extreme food shortages during war force people to eat food that they normally do not consider edible. The last time that countries in Western Europe experienced severe scarcities was during World War II. The so-called Dutch famine or Hunger Winter (1944–1945) made at least 25,000 victims. The Dutch government took action by opening soup kitchens and providing information on wild plants and other famine food sources in “wartime cookbooks.” The Dutch wartime diet has never been examined from an ethnobotanical perspective.MethodsWe interviewed 78 elderly Dutch citizens to verify what they remembered of the consumption of vegetal and fungal famine food during World War II by them and their close surroundings. We asked whether they experienced any adverse effects from consuming famine food plants and how they knew they were edible. We identified plant species mentioned during interviews by their local Dutch names and illustrated field guides and floras. We hypothesized that people living in rural areas consumed more wild species than urban people. A Welch t test was performed to verify whether the number of wild and cultivated species differed between urban and rural citizens.ResultsA total number of 38 emergency food species (14 cultivated and 21 wild plants, three wild fungi) were mentioned during interviews. Sugar beets, tulip bulbs, and potato peels were most frequently consumed. Regularly eaten wild species were common nettle, blackberry, and beechnuts. Almost one third of our interviewees explicitly described to have experienced extreme hunger during the war. People from rural areas listed significantly more wild species than urban people. The number of cultivated species consumed by both groups was similar. Negative effects were limited to sore throats and stomachache from the consumption of sugar beets and tulip bulbs. Knowledge on the edibility of famine food was obtained largely by oral transmission; few people remembered the written recipes in wartime cookbooks.ConclusionThis research shows that 71 years after the Second World War, knowledge on famine food species, once crucial for people’s survival, is still present in the Dutch society. The information on famine food sources supplied by several institutions was not distributed widely. For the necessary revival of famine food knowledge during the 1940s, people needed to consult a small group of elders. Presumed toxicity was a major reason given by our participants to explain why they did not collect wild plants or mushrooms during the war.

Food insecurity and the use of soup kitchens among suburban elderly women in two counties in Pennsylvania

PurposeThis paper aims to study the specific factors causing suburban-dwelling elderly American women to patronize different soup kitchens in Pennsylvania and investigate how non-profit and government agencies could better meet the needs of this food-insecure population, to fill a significant gap in the growing literature on food insecurity in high-income countries.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted observational visits and structured interviews with over 200 patrons and staff of soup kitchens in two counties in the US state of Pennsylvania over visits spanning two years.FindingsElderly American women have very distinct soup kitchen needs and usage patters that differ from other patrons in eight key ways the authors identify. From these, the authors identify four central themes that food assistance reform in the US must address to improve the wellbeing of this subpopulation.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors find that significant structural changes of the US food relief system must be made to better meet the needs of food-insecure elderly American women.Practical implicationsSoup kitchens should begin to offer information about federal programs, group transportation and other resources tailored to elderly women at soup kitchens to significantly improve their wellbeing, and help relieve the burden born by US non-profit food assistance organizations.Originality/valueNo studies to date have focused on the soup kitchen use of this specific population, whose needs, living circumstances, attitudes toward charity and socioeconomic realities differ significantly from other subpopulations of soup kitchen patrons.

Loitering: reassembling time in the city-of-the-global-south

One of the most powerfully visible ways in which public space in inner city Johannesburg is ordered is through the material presence of apparently idle young men – a context profoundly linked to the precarious position of young and immigrant men in the post-apartheid economy. For the most part, these young men are regarded with disdain, the objects of fear and anxiety. In the following discussion, based on two years of field research with a group of unemployed young men (between the ages of 15 and 30 years old) who attend a weekly bible study and soup kitchen at a church in the inner city, I demonstrate ways in which these young men structure their daily lives in response to the over-abundance of time. I consider how the act of loitering in public space serves to reassemble the relationship between time and value at the peripheries of the urban economy, extracting value from the apparently idle activity of waiting in the present, but uncoupled from a sense of control over the past and future.

“Go and Do Likewise”: Investigating Whether Involvement in Congregationally Sponsored Community Service Activities Predicts Prosocial Behavior

Some congregations sponsor activities through which people can serve in the community, like serving meals at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, offering after-school programs for neighborhood children, and hosting counseling and support groups. This study investigates whether attenders who are involved in congregationally sponsored community service activities (CSCSA) are more likely to engage in forms of prosocial behavior that are not organized or sponsored by their congregation. In doing so, it draws on past literatures about three key predictors of prosocial behavior—congregational involvement, religious beliefs and values, and community involvement. Results from the 2008/2009 U.S. Congregational Life Survey indicate that: (1) even when controlling for congregational involvement, religious beliefs and values, and community involvement, involvement in CSCSA is positively related to providing social support, charitable giving, civic engagement, and involvement in non-congregationally related community organizations; (2) involvement in CSCSA improves the model fit when predicting these outcomes. These results suggest that: (1) despite its similarity to past predictors, involvement in CSCSA matters for predicting prosocial behavior (i.e., it is more than the sum of the past predictors); (2) engaging in prosocial behavior through CSCSA may spill over into attenders’ everyday lives and encourage them to engage in forms of prosocial behavior that are not organized or sponsored by a congregation.

Assessment and Prediction in Homelessness Services and Elsewhere

AbstractThis article cautions against the naïve use of predictive techniques by homelessness service providers. Prediction is hard and may be impossible. Prediction does not automatically lead to socially optimal assignments. On the other hand, mechanism design, which does not rely on top‐down predictions, can be used to good effect. Moreover, fairness counts as well as optimality—and may be easier to achieve. I use examples from fire service, central banking, police patrol, tax auditing, art, finance, soup kitchens and cadaveric organ allocation.

Bread of Shame: Mechanisms of Othering in Soup Kitchens

This article examines processes of othering in seven soup kitchens in Israel through participant observations as a staff-volunteer and as a diner. The empirical study of othering and otherness in relation to poverty is focused mainly on discourse analysis of texts that appeared in the media. This article contributes to this body of knowledge by analyzing the everyday routines, habits, norms, rules, and arrangements of space and time that turn the diners from “ordinary” people to “others.” This process contains four simultaneous mechanisms: drawing boundaries, distancing and rejection, stripping of personal identity, and the attribution of stigma. The article discusses these mechanisms in the context of othering of people in poverty. In addition, the article discusses methodological issues that derive from the unique use of body senses as a research tool.

Free to Serve? Emergency Food and Volunteer Labor in the Urban U.S.

Since the 1980s, cutbacks to welfare programs, widespread economic insecurity, and increased federal funding for nonprofit agencies have led to a massive expansion of emergency food providers (EFPs) such as soup kitchens and food pantries across the United States. These anti-hunger organizations are often staffed exclusively or predominantly by volunteers who are empowered to care for their communities. But, like all caring labor, volunteer work is shaped by race, class, and gender inequalities. Hunger and poverty motivate poor women to become volunteers, and contradictions around how this labor should be remunerated, recognized, and regulated create conflicts within EFPs. By mobilizing large numbers of poor, hungry people as volunteers to distribute surplus food, emergency food providers transform both wasted food and people who are typically considered “burdens” on the state into an important new form of free labor for a struggling economy in ways that deepen existing social inequalities.

Volunteering Mothers: Engaging the Crisis in a Soup Kitchen of Northern Greece

The ‘Bank of Love’ is a soup kitchen administered by the Orthodox Church in the town of Xanthi, Northern Greece. Currently operating amidst economic crisis, the Bank of Love occupies approximately fifty volunteering women who cook and distribute 150 meals to the poor daily. Despite the widespread proliferation of the egalitarian and counter-hegemonic notion of ‘solidarity’, these female cooks do not subscribe to its values. Crucially, however, neither do they embrace the hierarchical idioms of ‘philanthropy’, often understood to occupy the other side of the spectrum. In an effort to depart from analytical dichotomies and designatory taxonomies, which might label the cook’s work as acts of either solidarity or philanthropy, this article uses the multivalent and open-ended concept of ‘engagement’. I pay particular attention to two radically different ‘modalities of engagement’. The first modality is contingent on notions of domesticity and occupies these cooks through their identities as women, housemistresses, and mothers. The second modality appropriates the discourses of volunteerism to transform these women into autonomous agents who enter the public sphere in the name of a good cause. I argue that engaging with ‘engagement’ may not only facilitate an understanding of processes of social transformation vis-à-vis articulations of gender, space, and affect, but also offer insights into the construction of the very object(s) of engagement. The Bank of Love bespeaks of a crisis symbolically constructed through the nexus and obligations of kinship, and of a crisis that provides space for the performance of autonomy and empowerment.

The rise of food banks and the challenge of matching food assistance with potential need: towards a spatially specific, rapid assessment approach

In the United States, food banks served an estimated 46 million people in 2015. A combination of government policy reforms and political economic trends contributed to the rising numbers of individuals relying on private food assistance in the US, the United Kingdom and other high-income countries. Although researchers frequently map urban food environments, this project is one of the first to map private food assistance and potential need at the census-tract scale. We utilize Geographic Information Systems, demographic data, and food assistance locations to develop a rapid assessment tool that could support food banks, pantries, soup kitchens, and government agencies that seek to answer the question of whether people with the greatest need have food distribution sites in close proximity. We define access based on distance and then calculate potential food insecurity using either poverty rates or a food insecurity index. We apply these methods in a case study analysis of Santa Clara County, California. Our findings suggest that food assistance distribution locations match the areas of potential need in more than 80% of urban census tracts. However, there are several potentially underserved locations and populations that could benefit from new food assistance operations. The poverty and index-based approaches show significant spatial overlap in mapped areas of high food insecurity and low access. The poverty only approach produces a higher estimate of food insecurity rates, is easier to calculate, and draws attention to the need to address poverty as a root cause of hunger.