Exploring the intersection between emergency food parcels and household dietary practices: A multi-method qualitative study of food banks in Portsmouth and the London Borough of Brent

Background: Food insecurity in the UK is a long-standing public health crisis. As food aid has evolved and become progressively more embedded, research has focused on the drivers of food poverty, the political and social dilemmas posed by the food bank sector, and the lived experiences of food bank users. The diets of those on low and precarious incomes are increasingly characterised by the substantial and regular inclusion of donated and surplus foods. However, research on emergency food aid parcels themselves and how they are perceived and utilised by food bank users remains underdeveloped. Aim: The aim of this thesis is to explore the intersections between the functioning and organisation of the food banking system, and individuals’ use of emergency food parcels to determine the extent to which food banks integrate with household dietary practices and food preferences. Methods: This study utilised a multi-method qualitative approach. Firstly, a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of eleven government and third-sector publications dating from 2013 to 2020 was conducted to determine how the role of food banks have been framed in the discourses of food poverty and hunger. This was combined with an ethnographic study of food banks in Portsmouth and the London Borough of Brent, for which remote and in-person interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 47 participants including food bank staff and volunteers (n = 23), long-term food bank users (n = 21) and public health practitioners (n = 3). These were supplemented by participant observations in seven food banks. Interview transcripts and fieldnotes were analysed thematically, using an iterative inductive process. A theoretical framework using Robert Stones Strong Structuration Theory, Blumer’s Symbolic Interactionism and Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach was developed to guide the interpretation of data. Results: Discursively, food banks are positioned to operate as emergency food aid providers. At a wider conceptual level, the underpinning presentation of food banks as short-term or emergency food aid providers is contradicted by the long-term structural hardship and inequality that contextualises household experiences of food poverty. The positioning of food banks as a form of welfare, either as part of statutory systems or as a substitute system, contradicts the charitable emergency nature of food banking that exists in the UK. The discourses of food poverty and hunger are fraught with contradictions and inconsistencies that never quite bridge the material and system-level ambiguities around the role of food banks. The ethnographic data highlights that the food bank system is characterised by reactivity and a lack of choice. Food bank users undergo a ritualistic process starting from the referral process, to being welcomed in by a volunteer who acts as a host, to obtaining a food parcel and engaging in an exchange ceremony with other users to obtain appropriate food supplies. The food bank's limited autonomy in deciding the quantity, quality, and variety of food, negatively affects the user's ability to access food that aligns with their dietary preferences, health requirements, and living circumstances. As a result of this, food bank users experience constrained dietary choices and options, and engage in (mal)adaptive coping strategies, as they access multiple food banks and food aid providers, shopping around for different foodstuffs. In this way, the food parcel may be used to address both temporary and long-term food needs. Subsequently, food banks may function as components of the local food system while simultaneously acting as part of a peripheral or alternative food (aid) system.