ABSTRACT

Hunger in the US exists at the nexus of the industrial food system, the political and economic disempowerment of people experiencing food insecurity, and the alternative economy of organizations providing sustenance to food insecure households. This chapter explores food access as a question of political and economic empowerment, and the relationship between federal food aid and federal crop support. Current agricultural policies generously support farmers and the overproduction of commodity crops, such as soybeans and corn, but are paired with poor relief programs that are deeply stigmatizing and offer enough food to stave off hunger among program participants. The chapter explains the rise of neoliberal economic policy and the concurrent development of workfarist social policy. It focuses on the literature on alternative economies and develops an analysis of food access programs which position them as operating outside of market forces and offering an opportunity for diverse ways of theorizing food access to develop.