ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the problematic way in which food access programs in the US are organized: they fail to create food security or empower participants to push for their own self betterment. It examines the connection between agricultural abundance and food insecurity and argues that overproduction of 'industrial food' or 'cheap food' counter intuitively leads to food insecurity and hunger as food becomes commoditized and marginalized groups lack the income or power to provision themselves. The book explains how food access programs often fail to create community among their participants but instead create community among program volunteers and coordinators. Subsequent, using the community economy model developed by J. K. Gibson-Graham the book reviews the extent to which food access programs discursively construct themselves as alternatives to capitalism and use this embrace of alterity to support their clients.
