The role of grassroots food banks in building political solidarity with vulnerable people

ABSTRACT

In the context of economic crisis and welfare retrenchment in Spain, food banks have been an emergency solution for those at risk of social exclusion. Food banks have been criticised for playing a significant role in perpetuating dependency and, therefore, exacerbating inequality between those who donate and receive help. However, in Madrid, in the years after the 15M movement grassroots food banks initiatives resignified an old mode of assistance by creating solidarity forms. In this paper, we analyse these grassroots food banks with a particular emphasis on the case of Tetuán. We show how political and interpersonal solidarity is built among grassroots foodbanks’ members. We argue that these banks’ political motto leads to inter-recognition among their participants. Furthermore, through a shared – and permanently reinforced – discourse, food recipients identify the root causes of their excruciating living conditions. Thus, a ‘we-ness’ (defined here as a sense of cohesion and fellowship) is created, which challenges the inequality and stigma reinforced by traditional, and charitable, forms of assistance. In sum, grassroots food banks promote social inclusion as they not only provide aid, but also endorse new venues for solidarity building that challenges the hierarchical relationships, ingrained in traditional forms of charity giving, typical of formal food banks.

KEYWORDS:

• Food banks
• charity
• political solidarity
• inter-recognition
• stigma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

María Gómez Garrido (BA History, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; PhD Social and Political Sciences, European University Institute) is Lecturer in Sociology at the Universitat de les Illes Balears. Her research focuses on social inequality, misrecognition and stigma and on the social processes that allow for the formation of social and political identities. She has also done research on comparative European social policies.

Maria Antònia Carbonero Gamundí is PhD in Geography (1989) and in Political and Social Science (1996). She is full professor at the Balearic Islands University. Her research is mainly in sociology of gender, social exclusion and social policy. Some of her publications about gender include the co-edition of the book Entre la familia y el trabajo: conflictos, relaciones y políticas públicas de género en Europa y América Latina (Homo Sapiens 2007) the chapter “¿Hacia una ciudadanía inclusiva de género?” in Indagaciones sobre la ciudadanía. Transformaciones en la era global (Icaria 2007) the book Nancy Fraser. Dilemas de la justicia en el siglo XXI. Género y globalización (Universitat de les Illes Balears, 2011) of which she is co-editor. In relation to the subject of social exclusion and social policy, a chapter in Crisis and Social Fracture in Europe (La Caixa, Welfare Projects, 2012).

Anahi Viladrich is a sociologist and medical anthropologist originally from Argentina, she holds a B.A./M.A. in Sociology from the University of Buenos Aires, a Master’s Degree in Sociology and a PhD in Sociomedical Sciences (with concentration in Medical Anthropology) from Columbia University, awarded with Distinction and the Marisa de Castro Benton Award, in 2003. An expert on international migration, Viladrich’s current research involves the study of food practices and societal responses to food insecurity—supported by novel grassroots initiatives—in Spain and the U.S. Viladrich is currently Full Professor in the Department of Sociology (with a courtesy appointment in the Anthropology Department) at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY). She is also affiliate with the Department of Sociology at the Graduate Center and the School of Public Health of CUNY.

Notes

1 There are around 27 grassroots food banks located in Madrid and the greater metropolitan area.

2 We first mapped a series of new civil society projects to better understand the process of how different forms of solidarity emerge and are constructed. A key selection criterion was that the projects had among their participants people at risk of social exclusion.

3 Invisibles is a social movement, created in the same context and in this neighbourhood, that demands social rights for people at risk of social exclusion and organises accompaniment to social services.

4 This decision has been carried out by several of Caritas territorial offices. See, for instance, La opinión de Zamora, 2 January 2016; El día de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 19 December 2013.

5 The chef Massimo Bottura explained his Milan project of refettorio with these words: ‘I thought: “we know how to create hospitality. Restoring the dignity of people is not to throw them a spoon of kitchen soup. Let’s serve them as if they were in a restaurant”’. This is another example of how attempts to avoid stigmatisation and restore the ‘dignity’ of the people who receive some form of food aid reproduce a consumer model. Massimo Bottura. Las obsesiones de un cocinero, El país semanal, N° 2170, p. 46.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación [grant number CSO2014-57084-R].