'No One should go hungry': the challenges of hunger relief efforts in contemporary Spain

Abstract

[eng] This paper critically examines the existing literature on voluntary giving and grassroots organizing involving hunger relief efforts in Spain. Two seemingly contrasting models are examined here: registered food banks that follow a top-down charitable framework, and grassroots food banks and pantries that are supported by self-organizing and localized political action. Registered food banks, which mostly tackle the interests agri-business in giving their surplus food to the needy, have been successful in strengthening an extensive system of food-based charity in Spain. These initiatives, intimately linked to traditional philanthropy, are today challenged by alternative food justice movements that frame the distribution and access to food mostly as citizenship rights. While this paper addresses the ideological underpinnings that distinguish the two food aid models, it also analyzes their similarities. Chief among these is the fact that they both depend on voluntary giving, rely on an unpaid labor force in order to gather and distribute food, and launch food drives as a main organizational tool. This study ultimately hopes to raise awareness about the challenges in providing long-term food relief to vulnerable individuals, across all levels of poverty and scarcity, in Spain particularly and the developed world generally.