Barriers to Access: The Unencumbered Client in Private Food Assistance

Author:

Haynes Stein Alana1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. University of California, Davis, USA

Abstract

The private food assistance network has expanded amidst a receding welfare state, signaling the privatization of food assistance and other social services. Simultaneously, the cultural association of poverty with morality characterizes some individuals as more “deserving” of assistance than others. As people seek social services, they must navigate programs embedded with these ideas of deservingness. I use data from 21 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with food bank clients and over 225 hours of participant observation at a California food bank and its partner agencies to examine how clients experience barriers to accessing private food assistance. I find that nonprofit program structures are designed to serve an unencumbered client, yet even populations characterized as “deserving” do not meet the characteristics of the unencumbered client. This nearly unattainable status of unencumbered client contributes to inequity emerging from the structural level that manifests as individuals try to access and use private food assistance. These structural barriers manifest in four ways at the food bank: material resources, nonprofit infrastructure and coordination, communication channels, and policing. Based on these findings, organizational practices of nonprofits are of key importance when considering the reproduction of inequality in society.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

General Social Sciences

Cited by 3 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3