The Right to Food and the Rise of Charitable Emergency Food Provision in the United Kingdom

This thesis explores the rise of nationally co-ordinated or facilitated emergency food provision in the UK and the implications it has for the realisation of the human right to food. Through extensive qualitative research with two of the country’s main emergency food providers it explores the adequacy of this system of food acquisition in relation to the social acceptability and the enduring sustainability of the provision and explores where responsibility lies – in practice and in theory – for ensuring everyone has the ability to realise their human right to food.

The findings tell us that these systems are not clearly adequate or sustainable by right to food standards. They illustrate how emergency food provision forms an identifiably ‘other’ system to the socially accepted mode of food acquisition in the UK today and one which is experienced as ‘other’ by those in food poverty. They also show that providers cannot guarantee being able to make food available through these systems and that access to these projects and the food they provide can be difficult for those in need.

Importantly, however, the findings also show that it is emergency food organisations that are increasingly taking responsibility for protecting people against experiences of food poverty. These organisations are assuming this responsibility in parallel to the significant withdrawal of the welfare state which is impacting on both the need for and nature of emergency food provision. The thesis argues that what is required are clear rights-based policy frameworks which enable a range of actors including the state, charities and the food industry to work together towards, and be held accountable for, the progressive realisation of the right to food for all in the UK.