1. Hannah Lambie-Mumford Department of Geography
Where is the justice? What does it mean to be providing emergency food aid in Scotland?
Hannah Lambie-Mumford
Department of Geography
Background: ESRC-funded study; Defra research; other research funded by EPSRC.
Name spelt wrong!
Caveat – discussion.

2. Contents The Problem The Response
Food poverty: structures and social justice
The Response
Food Aid and beyond
Aim – to stimulate discussion
Two aspect:
Framing the problem in social justice terms
Discussing what a social justice response might look like – what responses look like now and might look like in social justice framing. Contextualising food aid responses in social justice framework.
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3. Structures and Social Justice
Food Poverty
Structures and Social Justice
In the interpretation of food poverty I am going to present, emphasizes 2 key aspects:
Structural determinants (social and economic determinants)
Social justice (as a way of understanding the lived experience and framing the discussion for responses)

4. Food Poverty - definition
Food poverty: ‘the inability to acquire or consume an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so’ (Dowler et al 2001, p.2)
A way of thinking about the relationship between food, poverty and social inclusion. Incorporates wider aspects of ‘insecurity’ and precariousness.
Lots of ways to talk about this problem (food sec, etc) but food poverty particularly useful because…
Also levels/degrees (acute, moderate, mild) – particularly important in the context of the ‘crisis’ discourse, for maintaining emphasis on other mild/moderate experiences.
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5. Food Poverty: determinants
Structure not behaviour
Income levels, competition in household budgets and rising cost of living.
Food Prices.
Local retail and transport infrastructure.
Accommodation status and cooking facilities.
Lots of definitions – and policy and practice based responses have emphasised behaviour (cooking, shopping, budgeting skills). Whereas I want to present to you today a very different interpretation, one which draws our attention and focus on to social and economic determinants.
So, socio-economic determinants of food accessibility (and availability).
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6. 2014 Food Poverty Context
Rising cost of living; wage freezes; welfare Reform ( cuts / freezing levels/ caps / reduction in entitlement)
Food Poverty ‘crises’:
Sanctions, delays in benefit payments, loss of job, debt
Whilst the structural interpretation can be traced back to earlier research, 90s, 2000s … , particular socio-economic context to food poverty in the UK.
Deleted slide….
Measures/indicators
Avoid reductionist measures. Food Poverty is grounded in lived experience and need to recognize the important of aspirations.
Food bank numbers are Food bank numbers – possibly an indicator of food poverty ‘crises’ but not all food poverty experiences.
Lack of indictors can turn to other data: LIDNS (Nelson 2007); Minimum Income Standard research (Hirsch 2013).
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7. Social justice framework
Relative poverty: what standard of living is customarily enjoyed?
Distributive justice: inequality; social security; role of state and charity.
Social exclusion: lived experience of exclusion; food poverty as both cause and symptom of exclusion.
How can this structural interpretation of food poverty be framed as an issue of social injustice? 3 key aspects to a social justice framework for food poverty…
Social justice interpretations of food poverty enable us to look at food poverty in terms of … relative poverty, distributional justice, social exclusion.
People’s experience of hunger and poverty is directly related to the societies in which they live and the standards of living which are customarily enjoyed. (Riches 1997: 65) customary/socially acceptable food experiences.
Hunger is primarily an issue of distributional justice engaging broad questions of work and income distribution, food policy, agricultural practices, health and welfare reforms, nutrition education, charitable aid, community development and the role of the state and the community sector. (Riches 1997, 68)
Food poverty is a consequence of exclusion but also can facilitate the exclusion (not being able to invite a friend over etc.) – more than a bundle of nutrients.
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8. Responses
Food aid and beyond

9. Social Justice response
Focus on rights and entitlements.
But what is everyone’s role in this? Food aid, Community food projects, NGOs, govt?
Ensuring everyone has minimum accepted standard of living through distributional/distributive justice thereby facilitating social inclusion.
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10. Food aid Short-term responses often to food poverty crises.
Range of projects: meal programmes, soup runs, food vouchers, food parcels (or food banks), food delivery.
Long history of this provision, some of it increasingly formalised.
Where does food aid fit into this? Issue of food poverty and social justice.
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11. Defra review of food aid
See Lambie-Mumford et al (2014)
Defra review of food aid
Increasing demand, no evidence growth is supply led.
Households try lots of different ways of obtaining food and food aid is a strategy of last resort.
Many who need it do not go.
Focus required on underpinning causes (root causes).
Thought I’d mention it here – inform discussion and fits well here.
About the research, brief introduction.
Where is it adequate food aid can….
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12. Challenges of Food aid
Symptoms V Root Causes: Nature of this provision: emergency relief and alleviation.
Short term crisis V long term insecurity: Food insecurity into the future.
Framing of the issue: Emphasis on food provision/skills rather than underlying structural causes
Challenges, from a social justice perspective.
Long term insecurity and what sustainable responses to this might look like.
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13. See Lambie-Mumford et al (2014)
Food Plus
Providers highlight the importance of other aspect of their work:
Stability and continuity; space to just be/chat; gateway to more formalised support; signposting.
Food outcomes? Longer-term outcomes?
How can this all fit together for the realisation of social justice?
However, findings suggest providers feel they do more than just hand out food – importance and value of this role as well.
But …. by social justice standards…?
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14. See Lambie-Mumford (2013)
Right to food approach
Introduces wider dimensions: ‘eradication of poverty’; ‘inseparable from social justice’. (CRESCR 1999)
Food poverty = symptom of the failure of a system to ensure adequate incomes, affordability and accessibility of food. (Dowler and O’Connor 2012)
Right to Food Strategies
So, I suggest…reimagining the responses.
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15. Rights-based responses
Beyond food provision:
Income levels, cost of living and household debt levels (role of welfare reform)
Structure of retail industry
Co-ordinating what exists (debt advice with food projects with benefits advice)
Advocacy and lobbying
What might action could be taken now in line with rights approaches
Move from provision to participation. Not just about food.
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16. Concluding Reflections

17. Reflections
Layers to the debate: aid and crisis; long term insecurity and standards of living.
Levels of response and how they fit together: community; local authority; Scotland wide.
What is success? How to account for social outcomes and ensure food/economic outcomes?
What should we think about next?
Inclusion, empowerment, etc usually a key aim but what we’re looking for are outcomes which are sustainable in the long run
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18. Thank you. Any questions? h.lambie-mumford@sheffield.ac.uk
@hlambiemumford

19. References
CESCR (1999),GeneralComment 12: The Right toAdequate Food (Article 11), [accessed 21 June 2012].
Dowler, E. and Turner, S. with Dobson, B. (2001) Poverty Bites: Food, Health and Poor Families, London, CPAG.
Dowler, E. and O’Connor, D. (2012), ‘Rights-based approaches to addressing food poverty and food insecurity in Ireland and the UK’, Social Science and Medicine, 74: 44–51.
Lambie-Mumford, H. (2013) ‘’Every town should have one’: emergency food banking in the UK’, Journal of Social Policy, 42, 01, 73-89
Lambie-Mumford, H., Crossley, D., Jensen, E., Verbeke, M. and Dowler, E. (2014) Household Food Security in the UK: A Review of Food Aid, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) [SEG 1205] [online]
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20. Hannah Lambie-Mumford Presentation for Community Food and Health Scotland event: ‘Emergency food aid: A National Learning Exchange’. 25th February Contact: