Janet Poppendieck Knihy

Exploring the implications of rising voluntarism and private charity in the face of diminishing government welfare, Janet Poppendieck critiques the effectiveness of these efforts in combating poverty. Through her firsthand experiences in soup kitchens and gleaning centers, she reveals the struggles of those relying on inadequate meals and questions whether these charitable initiatives inadvertently sustain the very issues they aim to resolve. Hailed as a pivotal examination of hunger, the book challenges the notion that increased charity alone can effectively address systemic poverty.

This groundbreaking book, now updated and expanded with a new epilogue and a foreword by Marion Nestle, explains how the New Deal food assistance effort, originally conceived as a relief measure for poor people, became a program designed to rise the incomes of commercial farmers. Author Janet Poppendieck also takes a broader look at how the New Deal years were formative for food assistance policies in subsequent administrations and evaluates the performance-or lack of performance-of in-kind relief programs. Book jacket