Reference no: EM133419321

Question: In her book Sweet Charity, Janet Poppendieck argues that emergency food programs contribute to our society's failure to face up to and deal with the erosion of economic inequality. They relieve the discomfort of the privileged by creating the illusion of effective action and offering us a myriad gratifying ways to participate in it. They create a culture of charity, she claims, that normalizes destitution and legitimates personal generosity as a response to major social and economic problems. They make it easier for government to shed its responsibility for the poor, reassuring policymakers and voters alike that no one will starve.

Are food banks and soup kitchens part of the problem they seek to resolve? Are we caught in the trap of our own compassion, reluctant to address the underlying causes of hunger because rescuing the poor has become personally gratifying?