The recent rise of food charity in the UK can usefully be placed into a wider historical, international and national policy context. As this chapter demonstrates, looking to the history of emergency food provision in the UK highlights that the modern manifestation of this charitable initiative is distinct from the country's long tradition of local food assistance. International food security and food charity research also provides insight into the growth of food charity in other country contexts and points to potential parallels, particularly in terms of the relationship between welfare reform and food charity growth.

Situating the rise of food charity and household food insecurity into the contemporary UK policy context highlights some of the key challenges facing policy and practice work in this area. The absence of accepted definitions and direct measures of household food insecurity means that a robust evidence base – and corresponding policy understanding – of food access is lacking in the UK. But it is the social policy context of the rise of food charity that is particularly important – and contentious. Food charity provision has grown at a time of unprecedented change in the UK welfare state, and the relationship between the rise of food charity and welfare reform is one of the most hotly contested – and politicised – aspects of this research area.

The rise and distinctiveness of modern food charity in the UK

The provision of free or subsidised food to people in need is not new in the UK. Churches and other charitable initiatives have long provided such assistance in local communities (McGlone et al., 1999). However, the last 10 years has seen the establishment and proliferation of national-scale organisations that are facilitating or coordinating this work in more formalised ways (Lambie-Mumford et al., 2014). Their professionalisation, coordination and scale make these initiatives distinct, and they have come to symbolise an increasing role for charities in caring for people in food insecurity in the UK. These organisations are therefore different from historical responses to hunger, which have been more ad hoc and localised and relatively out of the view of the mainstream media.

The two most prominent food charities in the UK – the Trussell Trust Foodbank Network and FareShare – provide prime examples of the distinctiveness of these newer initiatives.