Sweet Charity? : Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement

by Poppendieck, Janet (Author)

• ISBN13: 9780140245561
• ISBN10: 0140245561
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-08-01
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Summary

In this era of eroding commitment to government sponsored welfare programs, voluntarism and private charity have become the popular, optimistic solutions to poverty and hunger. The resurgence of charity has to be a good thing, doesn't it? No, says sociologist Janet Poppendieck, not when stopgap charitable efforts replace consistent public policy, and poverty continues to grow. In Sweet Charity?, Poppendieck travels the country to work in soup kitchens and "gleaning" centers, reporting from the frontlines of America's hunger relief programs to assess the effectiveness of these homegrown efforts. We hear from the "clients" who receive meals too small to feed their families; from the enthusiastic volunteers; and from the directors, who wonder if their "successful" programs are in some way perpetuating the problem they are struggling to solve. Hailed as the most significant book on hunger to appear in decades, Sweet Charity? shows how the drive to end poverty has taken a wrong turn with thousands of well-meaning volunteers on board.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Charity for All	p. 20
Who Eats Emergency Food?	p. 49
The Rise of Emergency Food	p. 81
Institutionalization: From Shoestring to Stability	p. 107
The Uses of Emergency Food	p. 141
The Seductions of Charity	p. 173
What's Wrong with Emergency Food? The Seven Deadly "Ins"	p. 201
Charity and Dignity	p. 230
The Ultimate Band-Aid	p. 256
Conclusion	p. 288
Notes	p. 319
Selected Bibliography	p. 341
Index	p. 345
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