Food as a scarce resource in food charity: losses and gains of food charity restructuring

Abstract This ethnographic case study examines how a meso-level food charity, specifically a centralized food aid terminal, attempts to legitimize restructured food aid, and how these changes shape food distribution practices at the micro level. The legitimation of new norms—allocation of aid, being free of charge, religious neutrality, equality of food parcels, accessibility, and openness—was aimed at improving moral quality of the provision of food aid. Data collected at the grass-root food provision sites and in interviews with the people in charge of restructuring shows a disparity between the aims set by the meso-level actors and everyday practices on the micro-level. At the micro-level, outcomes were often compromised due to the scarcity of available resources, especially food. Formal rules and informal but legitimized norms have harmonized and equalized food distribution practices, but changes have also made a share of donors and even food aid recipients drift away from the food waste terminal and its network of local food delivery sites. This study offers internationally relevant insight into how charitable food aid systems adapt their structures and forms of agency within austerity-shaped environments, using structuration theory to interpret the empirical findings.