ABSTRACT
This chapter offers six starting points for how organizations in the shadow state can more strongly tend to the day-to-day needs of those experiencing food insecurity in ways that fight back against clientelization and workfarism, while simultaneously operating as 'spaces of hope' within a landscape that often seems bereft of empowering possibilities. In examining the work of Ruby's Food Pantry (RFP), SHARE, SOS, and the CHUM Food Shelf each organization creates an alternative economy with a particular focus on improving food access and they each work with varying degrees of success to fight community disengagement and marginalization. SoS developed a different model based on shunting volunteers off into 'volunteer days' and keeping the traditional 9-5 workday period as a place for only crew members and crew leaders. The federal government plays a large role in providing food support for those in need. Fully 85" of the food-insecure individuals in this study used some form of government food support.
