Charitable food systems’ capacity to address food Insecurity: an Australian capital city audit
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Date
2018-06-12
Authors
Pollard, Christina M
Mackintosh, Bruce
Campbell, Cathy
Kerr, Deborah A
Begley, Andrea
Jancey, Jonine
Caraher, Martin
Berg, Joel
Booth, Sue
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI
Rights
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Rights Holder
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract
Australian efforts to address food insecurity are delivered by a charitable food system
(CFS) which fails to meet demand. The scope and nature of the CFS is unknown. This study
audits the organisational capacity of the CFS within the 10.9 square kilometres of inner-city Perth,
Western Australia. A desktop analysis of services and 12 face-to-face interviews with representatives
from CFS organisations was conducted. All CFS organisations were not-for–profit and guided by
humanitarian or faith-based values. The CFS comprised three indirect services (IS) sourcing, banking
and/or distributing food to 15 direct services (DS) providing food to recipients. DS offered 30
different food services at 34 locations feeding over 5670 people/week via 16 models including mobile
and seated meals, food parcels, supermarket vouchers, and food pantries. Volunteer to paid staff
ratios were 33:1 (DS) and 19:1 (IS). System-wide, food was mainly donated and most funding was
philanthropic. Only three organisations received government funds. No organisation had a nutrition
policy. The organisational capacity of the CFS was precarious due to unreliable, insufficient and
inappropriate financial, human and food resources and structures. System-wide reforms are needed
to ensure adequate and appropriate food relief for Australians experiencing food insecurity.
Description
This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords
food insecurity, charitable food services, food charity, food system, nutrition, voluntary failure
Citation
Pollard, C.M., Mackintosh, B., Campbell, C. et al., (2018). Charitable food systems’ capacity to address food Insecurity: an Australian capital city audit. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 15:1249.