‘The do-gooders and scroungers’: examining narratives of foodbank use in online local press coverage in the West Midlands, UK

Abstract

This qualitative study using a grounded theory approach, assesses the construction of claims in online news articles and below the line comments in connection with foodbank use in the West Midlands region, UK. The sample includes 146 online news articles and 132 below the line comments, commencing 23 September 2010 until 8 April 2019. Individual foodbank users’ stories are told and these relay discourses of stigma, shame, embarrassment and desperation. In contrast, the below the line comments centre on the undeserving poor. Here, emphasis is on the migrants who are ‘flooding’ the country, and the scroungers who are work-shy.

The Food Bank: A Safety-Net in Place of Welfare Security in Times of Austerity and the Covid-19 Crisis

“…The UK food bank, as a provider of emergency food aid, has been discussed elsewhere (Lambie-Mumford, 2013;Price et al, 2020;Beck and Gwilym, 2020). The focus of this article is to contextualise the establishment and growth of food banks as a consequence of failings in the welfare state, further illustrated by the Covid-19 crisis.…”

“…Evidence also highlights that the introduction of the 'Big Society' allowed for an easing of the effects of welfare retrenchment -with community groups and voluntary organisations filling the void left by austerity (Williams et al, 2014). Highlighting the significance of the 'Big Society' approach regarding food banks, findings from Price et al (2020) show that it is this 'Big Society' thinking that leads local citizens to donate to food banks as an act of active participation within their local community. Owing to the rise in food bank numbers, the food bank has become a vital provision that referral organisations have come to depend upon, as a means of helping people within their communities to bridge the financial gap caused by a rapidly retrenched social security system (Beck and Gwilym, 2020).…”

“…For Slater (2014) the Big Society is indicative of the belief that the welfare state has run its course and that volunteerism and donations are being politically encouraged as a new obligation. A position supported by Price et al (2020), that the motivation to donate to food banks centres on the desire for citizens to play an active role in supporting their society. This level of social acceptance of food banks was illustrated in 2016 by an argument between the supermarket chain Asda and its customers following the removal of food bank collection baskets.…”

The ethical dilemmas of foodbanking: an analysis of the More Than Food programme

“…This led to a range of ad-hoc measures of discretion in which foodbank users were positioned as somewhat feckless or in the words of one: "taking the mick". Reflecting wider narratives about foodbank users that circulate within popular discourse (Beck and Gwilym, 2020;Price et al, 2020), there was a clear sense that foodbank managers felt they could identify the deserving (those with moral worth) and the less deserving -those who use foodbanks as a lifestyle choice. This betrayed a lay morality in which those who were judged to be responsible for their own poverty did not have the (same) 'right' to receive food aid (as 'victims' of structural injustice):…”

Children’s centres, families and food insecurity in times of crisis

“…First, we extend research on food insecurity in families. In recent years, a rapidly growing body of research has examined the growth of food aid and charity across the UK in the form of foodbanks (for example, Garthwaite, 2016a;Ghys, 2018;Price et al, 2020;Parr et al, 2021;Pybus et al, 2021). While important, this literature has focused less systematically on food insecurity among young children, its connections to educational inequalities and systems, or given sufficient attention to the emergence of charitable, institutional and organisational responses to food insecurity beyond foodbanks.…”