ABSTRACT
The increasing prominence of foodbanks in the UK over the past decade has brought with it the international debate about what role they should play in easing food poverty, particularly in countries with well-developed social welfare systems (Poppendieck, 1999). This chapter considers the emergence and continued growth of foodbanks from a critical social work perspective (Fook, 2012). Following a brief exploration of UK foodbanks in the context of recent welfare reforms, there will be an initial focus on whether foodbanks could or should be considered counter-practice. The chapter will then conclude by proposing the wider adoption of a poverty aware paradigm of practice (Krumer-Nevo, 2016). This practice framework facilitates a challenge to the structural and ideological inequality that generates food poverty whilst also easing the consequences of its existence.
