Connecting Climate Change and The Emergency Food Shelf System: Resiliency, Community Practice and Commodity Distribution for the food insecure

Keywords: climate change, charity, resiliency, food access
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This paper explores the tensions between the climate crisis and the public / private partnership providing for food insecure populations in the US: the Private Emergency Food Shelf system (PEFS). Composed of 200 food banks that source food from the federal government, corporate food producers, and donations, the PEFS distribution network is composed of 60,000 volunteer-staffed food shelves grounded in local communities. As the climate crisis intensifies we can expect major disruptions in multiple aspects of PEFS operations. This paper focuses on eight interconnected themes: migration, food sourcing, housing stress, charity and resiliency, communities of practice, and carbon sequestration. I argue that climate change adaption must include a robust analysis of how low- and no-income populations will be effected especially in regards to how charitable networks will be altered given contemporary climate change modeling.