The moral maze of food bank use

Beck, DJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4600-6905 and Gwilym, H 2020, 'The moral maze of food bank use' , Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 28 (3) , pp. 383-399.

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Abstract

The foodbank symbolises a changing landscape of social insecurity and welfare conditionality. Attending to decision making within the food bank system, this article argues that food banks, and their referral-system creates a bureaucratic ‘moral maze’ that identifies people as ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’ of help. Maintaining a moral distance, organised religious food banks are reliant upon a complex outsourcing of moral decisions and walk a fine balance between supply (donations) and demand (use). Within this article, we argue that the food bank landscape is akin to navigating a moral maze, and that this creates, and thus justifies decisions of deservedness.

Item Type:	Article
Schools:	Schools > School of Health and Society
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Poverty and Social Justice
Publisher:	Policy Press
ISSN:	1759-8273
Depositing User:	DJ Beck
Date Deposited:	05 Aug 2022 13:27
Last Modified:	17 Aug 2022 08:17
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/57454

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