The moral maze of food bank use

Beck, DJ; Gwilym, H

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.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 16, 2019
• Publication Date: Jun 15, 2020
• Deposit Date: Aug 5, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Poverty and Social Justice
• Print ISSN: 1759-8273
• Electronic ISSN: 1759-8281
• Publisher: Policy Press
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 383-399
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/175982720X15905998909942
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1332/175982720X15905998909942