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Action research on organizational change with the Food Bank of the Southern Tier: a regional food bank’s efforts to move beyond charity

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  • Alicia Swords

    (Ithaca College)

Abstract

This paper reports on an action research project about organizational change by a regional food bank in New York State’s southern tier. While the project team initially included a sociologist, food bank leadership and staff, it expanded to involve participants in food access programs and area college students. This paper combines findings from qualitative research about the food bank with findings generated through a collaborative inquiry about a ten-year process of organizational change. We ask how a regional food bank can change its approach to address root causes of hunger. Acknowledging that narrow, pragmatic definitions of hunger promote charitable responses, our collaboration is grounded in structural understandings of poverty that refuse to blame the poor or treat poverty as an accident. Decades-long economic restructuring, deindustrialization and a rise in the service economy have resulted in growing inequality and long-term demand for “emergency” food in New York State. We outline critiques by scholars and practitioners of the emergency food regime. Description and analysis of the organizational change efforts of the Food Bank of the Southern Tier combine discourse analysis, collaborative inquiry, interviews, and participant observation. Discourse analysis of the agency’s strategic plans documents changes in aspirations, exposure to new epistemic communities and repertoires of actions. Interviews with participants evidence impacts of the organization’s advocacy and education programs on people with lived experience in poverty. Through a participatory process, we developed a collaborative chronology of phases of organizational change. Collaborative analysis of organizational changes demonstrates new definitions of the problem, a shift in service focus, changing outcomes and increased funding for advocacy. While recognizing substantial constraints, this project contributes to evidence that food banks may shift their discourse and practices beyond charity.

Suggested Citation

  • Alicia Swords, 2019. "Action research on organizational change with the Food Bank of the Southern Tier: a regional food bank’s efforts to move beyond charity," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(4), pages 849-865, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:36:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s10460-019-09949-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-019-09949-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lauren Winkler & Taylor Goodell & Siddharth Nizamuddin & Sam Blumenthal & Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, 2023. "The COVID-19 pandemic and food assistance organizations’ responses in New York’s Capital District," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 1003-1017, September.
    2. Charis Linda Braun & Vera Bitsch & Anna Maria Häring, 2022. "Behind the scenes of a learning agri-food value chain: lessons from action research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(1), pages 119-134, March.

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