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Food Assistance

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Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics

Synonyms

Breadlines; Charitable food assistance; Emergency food; Food banks; Food donations; Food pantries; Food poverty; Food security; Hunger; Soup kitchens

Introduction

Food assistance and food charity refer to practices where public, private, or third sector actors provide food (or resources to acquire food) to individuals or households that face hunger or food shortage. The food is provided for free or for a minimal cost and the provision is conducted through varying services like food banks. Domestic food assistance practices are realized in relations between a collective (the provider or donor) and individuals (the recipients of the assistance). For those international practices of food aid that take place between collectives, typically nations or global food aid organizations and recipient countries, see the entry for “Food Aid.”

Currently, approximately 800 million people in the world are undernourished and even more lack food security. According to FAO (2015), food security...

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References

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Correspondence to Teea Kortetmäki .

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Kortetmäki, T., Silvasti, T. (2019). Food Assistance. In: Kaplan, D.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_613

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