Food rescue as collective care

Abstract

In 2016, France passed a law making it illegal for supermarkets with floor space over 400 m² to throw away quality surplus food. Large supermarkets are now required to donate the food they no longer sell to charities (Chrisafis, 2016). While food rescue advocates were supportive, the legislation introduced challenges for charities who now need chillers, storage facilities, food and waste handling systems, and additional workers. In other words, the law change came before the social and material infrastructure was in place to manage the surplus food.In this paper we use social practice theory and community economy perspectives to show how a food rescue organisation, Kaibosh, based in Wellington, New Zealand, has created a commoning community through social and material infrastructure at multiple scales -from local distribution networks to national legislation. The research was prompted by two related questions. The first, posed by Hawkins (2006), asks how might ecologically wasteful practices be changed without recourse to guilt, moralism, or despair? As Hawkins notes, making people feel bad about waste isn't helpful,

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