The Role Of Food Assistance In High Income Countries: A Critical Literature Review

The recent financial crisis, in conjunction with austerity policies, has brought an increasing number of people to seek food assistance. Food assistance is often delegated by governments to charitable organizations and food poverty is in general peripheral to the work of policy makers. There is need for an enhanced understanding of food poverty in HIC to rebalance the interaction between charity initiatives and the aid provided by the State through the welfare system. What are the main drivers and vulnerabilities of food assistance? To what extent should food assistance be addressed with social protection measures and economic policies, or by looking into the specificities of the food system? We review available scientific literature on food assistance in HIC to characterize how it is handled and by which actors. This allows to analyse the role of food assistance in addressing food insecurity, by highlighting food assistance activities in relation to the food system and/or other systems (e.g. social security, labor, health) facing external factors of change (drivers).