Artigo submetido a 11de Novembro de 2018; versão final aceite a 24 de Setembro de 2019 Paper submitted on November 11, 2018; final version acceptet on September 24, 2019 The Importance of Social Canteens in the Portuguese Emergency Food Program: A Case Study of the Holy Houses of Mercy1

A Importância das Cantinas Sociais no Programa de Emergência Alimentar em – O Estudo de Caso das Misericórdias Portuguesas

Maria Cristina Moreira [email protected] Dept Economics. University of Minho, - Portugal

Ana Fernandes [email protected] Master on Social Economics, University of Minho

Paulo Mourão [email protected] Dept Economics. University of Minho, Braga – Portugal

Abstract/ Resumo

The Portuguese social canteens are a social As cantinas sociais portuguesas constituiram response to fight the extreme poverty and social uma resposta social para combater a extrema po- exclusion in Portugal. The Solidarity Network breza e exclusão social em Portugal. A Rede So- of Social Canteens was created under the Por- lidária de Cantinas Sociais foi criada no âmbito tuguese Emergency Nutritional Program in do Programa Nutricional de Emergência Portu- 2012 to ensure individuals and/or families in guês em 2012 para garantir que indivíduos e / ou need have access to free meals. This study aims famílias necessitadas tivessem acesso a refeições to assess the contribution of the Social Can- gratuitas. Este estudo tem como objetivo avaliar teens managed by the Portuguese Holy Houses of Mercy in implementing the Emergency Nu- a contribuição das Cantinas Sociais geridas pelas Santas Casas da Misericórdia de Portugal na im- tritional Program (particularly in a sample com- posed of the Holy Houses of Mercy in Northern plementação do Programa Nutricional de Emer- gência (particularmente numa amostra composta Portugal). Therefore, we developed a detailed (descriptive and content) analysis upon a sur- pelas Misericórdias do Norte de Portugal). A vey responded by these institutions. Most of the maioria das instituições pesquisadas revelou um surveyed institutions revealed a significant in- aumento significativo no número de refeições crease in the number of daily provided meals diárias fornecidas (um aumento de 300 refeições (an increase of 300 meals per year since 2012). por ano desde 2012). Apesar desse aumento e da Despite this increase and the discussion of discussão de outros indicadores obtidos, as Can- other obtained indicators, the Social Canteens tinas Sociais também identificam diversas críti-

1 The Authors acknowledge the suggestions provided by two anonymous reviewers on a previous version of this research. The Authors also acknowledge the comments provided by the participants at the Session of the Conference EspaNet (Oporto, September, 2019) in which a previous version of this research has been discussed. Remaining limitations are authors’ exclusive ones.

Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais, nº 55

also identify several criticisms in the linkages cas nos termos do Programa, especificamente of the Program, specifically within the follo- dentro dos três vetores: apoio governamental, in- wing three vectors: governmental support, in- terconexão entre instituições e regras do Progra- terconnection among institutions, and the rules ma. of the Program.

Keywords: Poverty, Social Exclusion, Social Palavras-chave: Pobreza, Exclusão Social, Canteens, Santa Casa da Misericórdia, institu- Cantinas Sociais, Programa Nutricional de tions Emergência, Santa Casa da Misericórdia, insti- tuições

JEL Code: A13; B55; H55 Código JEL: A13; B55; H55

1. INTRODUCTION social responses (namely, as extensions of the Holy Houses of Mercy), Social Canteens have The current economic and political conjunc- constituted the major agents in the development ture is producing changes in the organization of of the Emergency Nutritional Program. As a

Portuguese households’ consumption, in partic- consequence, they are also the main representa- ular, food consumption. Since the crisis of 2008, tive members of the Solidarity Network. There- many Portuguese families began facing in- fore, we designed a survey to collect indicators creased (or new) economic difficulties, which of this platform and the main criticisms of these clearly represented a worsening of their living players to allow correction of these criticisms as conditions and well‐being. the Program evolves. Unemployment, low salaries, low old‐age The structure of this paper is as follows: Sec- pensions, and cuts in important benefits and so- tion 2 describes the Portuguese Social Canteens, cial grants are having repercussions further im- the Solidarity Network of Social Canteens, and poverishing those whose only source of income the Emergency Nutritional Program. Section 3 is their work or retirement funds, while poverty describes the methodological steps undertaken and social exclusion are assuming worrying di- in this study to distribute the survey to the social mensions. canteens of the Holy Houses of Mercy in North- Social canteens stand out in this situation as ern Portugal. Section 4 discusses the main re- an answer to a growing need, resulting from the sults and implications derived from the survey. current socio‐economic conjuncture. Therefore, Finally, Section 5 provides a conclusion. considering the maximization of existing re- sources, a Program of Food Emergency has 2. PORTUGUESE SOCIAL CAN- been created (also called the ‘Emergency Nutri- TEENS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST tional Program’), which consists of a free sup- POVERTY – SOME STATS OF THE

ply of complete meals (bread, soup, main dish SURROUNDING PERIOD AND A RE- and fruit), seven days a week for household con- VIEW OF THE LITERATURE sumption. In this context, this work aims to determine Given the incidence of the Program in the the importance of the intervention of the Holy years after 2012, it is important to provide some Houses of Mercy (“Santas Casas da Misericór- details about the Portuguese economy in the pe- dia”)e France in theis the Emergency second biggest Nutritional EMU economy Program, riode France before is 2012 the second. According biggest to EMU the Report economy In- which was a part of the Solidarity Network of 2 and, as Finland, is not considered a “peripheral” and,come as and Finland, Poverty is not (Carmo considered, 2010), a “peripheral”Portugal has the Social Canteens in Portugal in the years of country. country.one of the most unequal income distributions in 2012 and 2013. the European Union. The risk of poverty in Por- The Social Canteens are social structures tugal continues to be significantly high. The in- that have been created to link meal providers crease in unemployment is notable among the

with families who need to receive these meals. less educated population and with intermediate

Having been created as extensions of existing qualifications. Regionally, the greatest Keywords: Markov-Switching models; Active Keywords: Markov-Switching models; Active portfolio2 management; financial market integra- portfolio management; financial market integra- tion; http://observatorio EMU stock -marketsdas-desiguald integrationades.cies.iscte.pt/index.jsp?page=indicators&id=215&lang=pt tion; EMU stock – marketsaccessed April integration 2015

130

The Importance of Social Canteens in the Portuguese Emergency Food Program: A Case Study …

expression of this phenomenon occurs in the Al- hough we verify that there is an improvement in garve and Northern Portugal (Carmo, 2010). the education levels of the Portuguese popula- Alt- tion, high rates of school dropouts and a low level of education continue to be registered (Carmo, 2010).

Figure 1 – Population at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Portugal, 2010-2013 (%)

27,40%

25,30% 25,30%

24,40%

2010 2011 2012 2013 Ano

Source: Own elaboration based on INE (2014:13)3

The concept of poverty is complex, and quality of life of the population (Capucha, some factors may be more important in certain 1998). regions than in other regions. Therefore, the Governments, including those of Portugal, definition of poverty used by the United Nations have created several programs and tools for and national institutions, recurs to a large range fighting poverty across the decades (Costa, of situations to characterize poverty, which is 1998). In the next sub-sections, we will discuss defined as follows: Poverty is a situation of pri- the Portuguese Program of Food Emergency vation, persistent and serious, relative to the and the relevance of a relevant tool within this satisfaction of one or more basic needs in a program – the Social Canteens. given society, standing out among them food, clothing, housing and the respective conditions 2.1. The Program of Food Emergency of use, the essential consumptions, the social and the Social Canteens of the Holy support, health and even certain extraordinary Houses of Mercy as Tools against consumptions (Oliveira, 2001:17). poverty: Actually, a good number of the poor people in Portugal work or have family members who 2.1.1. The Program of Food Emergency are active employees. However, as they tend to and the role of Social Canteens have low qualifications, they work in less pro- ductive areas where low salaries predominate. The Government of Portugal, following the Even when these salaries are combined with National Constitution, has attempted to have as other sources of income (e.g., family agriculture its main concern the protection of disadvan- or other practices of the informal economy), the taged people by promoting social protection, sum does not reveal itself capable of overcom- equity, access to health, the reduction of the un- ing poverty. On the contrary, social exclusion employment and the promotion of employment often favors the permanence of outdated eco- (Costa, 1998). In this context, national pro- nomic and working structures that are not al- grams that effectively combat fragile social sit- ways productive and are unable to ensure the uations, such as the Program of Food

3 http://www.ine.pt/xpor- tal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_destaques&DESTAQUESdest _boui=208819520&DESTAQUESmodo=2 – accessed May 2015

131 Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais, nº 55

Emergency, constitute concrete tools of the Collaboration follows the forms recognized by public plans in the national territory. the Solidarity Network of Social Canteens (con- The Program of Food Emergency (“Pro- stituted by the Social Security Institute, I.P. and grama de Emergência Alimentar”, in Portu- the representative entities of the social/third sec- guese language) was implemented in March tor – the National Confederation of Institutions 2012, and it was composed of a Solidarity Net- of Social Action (CNIS), the Union of Portu- work of Social Canteens that ensure that people guese Holy Houses of Mercy, and the Union of and/or families in economic hardship have ac- Mutualities). The Protocol’s form has thirteen cess to free daily meals. The number of meals, clauses with particular emphasis on the follow- the duration of the coverage and the nature of ing fundamental aspects: the grants are defined according to the specific • The State funds 2.5 euros per meal. characteristics of the social equipment in which There may be an additional grant per meal de- the meals are served (Union of Portuguese Holy pending on the income of the recipient family Houses of Mercy, 2012:2). (in accordance with the criteria to be defined by As stated, Social Canteens have constituted the institution). themselves as a primary agent of the Portuguese • The human resources concerning the Program of Food Emergency. However, social Program of Food Emergency may be available canteens are spread worldwide and are not an in the institution for other social response(s), ac- historical novelty (Long and Nerard, 2014). cording to the underlying principle of the crea- From schools’ canteens and from those man- tion of the Solidarity Network of the Social aged by non-profit organizations to the politi- Canteens. cally-engaged soviet canteens, there are many • The identification and selection of peo- forms of social canteens which the literature has ple who will benefit from the meal are per- discussed with a proper set of works. formed by the institutions. There are some pri- ority targets as follows: elder people, people 2.1.2. The Social Canteens of the Holy with lower income, families exposed to (multi- Houses of Mercy )unemployment or with children, those who have difficulty being accepted by the labor mar- The Holy Houses of Mercy characterize ket and people who are already receiving social themselves as Particular Institutions of Social benefits. Solidarity (PISS), which have developed a di- • Situations of recent unemployment or versity of social responses for more than 500 multiple unemployment should also be consid- years in Portugal. They are involved in several ered. Families with fixed expenses with chil- projects of relevance for the promotion of the dren, families/individuals with low salaries or social and human development of the popula- with chronic diseases and fixed housing ex- tion and seek adequate answers for the needs of st penses, and single-parent families or situations this population. According to the 1 article of of temporary emergency are also potential tar- the aforementioned Decree, Law 119/83, the gets of the Program. PISS “are particular institutions of social soli- • People cannot benefit from the Program darity created with non-profit purposes by the if they benefit from other similar Programs initiative of particular entities with the purpose (such as the beneficiaries of the Food Bank, of of giving organized expression to the duty of other Social canteens, or direct distribution of moral, solidarity and justice among individuals. food to the homeless). They are not ruled by the State or by an Autar- chic body (...)”. Figure 2 (based on the data we collected af- By 2011, several social canteens have ap- ter the survey) presents that the number of dis- peared in Portugal, and many of these are exten- tributed meals in the northern sample of the Por- sions of the existing Holy Houses of Mercy tuguese social canteens provided by the Holy (Mourão and Enes, 2016). The major task of the Houses of Mercy has significantly increased social canteens has been to fight against poverty from the starting year (2012) to the following and social exclusion. year (2013). It also reveals significant differ- The establishment of the Social Canteens re- ences across the different districts (namely, the sults from the signature of a Protocol of Collab- inner districts of Vila Real and Bragança exhibit oration. According to the Union of Portuguese numbers that are similar to those of two densest Holy Houses of Mercy (2012), the Protocol of coastal areas, Braga and Porto).

132 The Importance of Social Canteens in the Portuguese Emergency Food Program: A Case Study …

Figure 2 – Geographical distribution of contracted meals (between the Holy Houses of Mercy of each dis- trict and the Institute for Social Assistance, 2012/2013).

Source: Own calculus based on the survey

2.1.3. Comparatives cases of Social Can- ens]. The prevailing foods were baked sausage, teens cheese, or chicken rolls or pastries.”

Other examples of social canteens were the 2.2. Motivation for the survey – which soviet canteens from the 1930s. Long and are the major constraints restricting the Nerard (2014) have observed how these canteens were “the place of a healthy diet, but action of Social Canteens in a also of a political education and kulturnost specifically impoverished region (the ("civilizing process"). Yet with the food crisis North of Portugal)? and rationing, the canteen became, for Soviet workers, the only location for a regular meal. Although the current legislative program in- On the ground, improvisation dominated. tends to renew the role of Social Canteens in Canteens were lacking everything: buildings, Portugal, it has become relevant to assess the refrigerated storage area, cutlery, staff and functioning of these institutions, even for especially food. Dirty premises, a very poor providing government and societal agents with quality of food, and monotony created additional resources for conducting the discus- discontent among the workers.” sion on the proper renewal of the role of social Highlighting some of the works focused on canteens in the Program for Food Emergency. modern times, we find the work of Godoy et al So, we became interested on analyzing the ma- (2017). This article observed that most of the jor role of Social Canteens as promoters of the users of Brazilian Social Canteens exhibit social economy of the surrounding environ- anthropometric indicators suggesting Food ments considering the insights of the institu- Insecurity (FI). Men who had a fat percentage tions responsible for the canteens’ development classified as “risk of diseases associated with (the general objective of the survey). Given the malnutrition” had a 2.34 times greater chance of challenging context of the Northern of Portugal experiencing severe FI, as did those who had in terms of poverty indicators, we considered low weight. Godoy et al (2017) also concluded structural the focus on this region. MacCallum the high prevalence of overweight and body fat et al (2009) have provided an enlarged insight in the population at all of the FI levels and for about the importance of organizations of the So- both sexes are an indication of the complexity cial Economy in terms of regional development of the Brazilian scenario regarding the and enhancement of local income and employ- population who eat at Social Canteens. ment. Social Canteens can be firstly discussed Finally, Porto et al (2015) observed, in an within this perspective because of their capacity empirically-motivated article, that “A higher of providing a local support of needy popula- prevalence of outsourcing, and few employees tions, of enhancing savings for the households and dieticians were observed [in Social Cante- and for the State, and of generating a network of

133 Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais, nº 55 jobs/paid works mostly supplied by resident gest techniques like experimental research, sur- people (Mourao, 2015). veys, phenomenological analyses, or mix meth- Derived from this general objective, we have ods. the following five specific objectives, following Second, the complexity of the problem but the five dimensions’ model of social programs’ also the emergency of the issue contribute to a evaluation (Rowe and Boise, 1973): to identify significant scarcity of studies focused on certain the current perceptions of the Program by the phenomena. When this happens, authors like evolving partners, mainly by the Social Can- Glaser and Strauss (1967) suggest the use of in- teens/Holy Houses of Mercy; to identify the struments like a study of control cases, a content place of consumption of the meals; to assess the analysis or surveys. adequacy of the supply of the contracted meals Finally, we wanted to study the northern area regarding the existing demand; to discuss the of Portugal, due to the severity of the indicators degree of involvement of the institutions in the regarding the socio-economic wellbeing but development of the Program; and to construct also due to the social significance of the Holy convenient indicators (e.g., number of meals, Houses of Mercy in this region. Authors like distribution of these meals in the region) to as- Freire (1981) suggest a case-study research or sess the effectiveness of the Program. surveys for discussing this kind of phenomena. The option for focusing on the Northern area Therefore, when we try to combine the dif- of Portugal has strong motivations. Several re- ferent instruments suggested for each side of ports quoted by Norte 2020 (2014: 357) show this ‘triangle’, we observe that surveys are the that the macroeconomic context of this region is common suggestion, which led us to design a particularly difficult. The unemployment rate is methodological approach in order to conduct higher than the national mean, especially in the surveys to be responded by all the Holy Houses NUTS3 Grande Porto, Tâmega, Douro and Ave. of Mercy supporting social canteens in the The several indicators of poverty show this re- Northern area of Portugal. gion as one area with some of the most chal- We are aware the covered period – 2012- lenging values in Portugal. Therefore, under- 2013 – is a short period. However, we have standing the role (but also the difficulties) of the three justifications for this choice and a derived Social Canteens of the Northern of Portugal is implication. The first justification concerns that relevant for our methodological goals, detailed this has been the initial period of the focused in next section. Program of Food Emergency in Portugal and In sum, we have here a phenomenon – the therefore – even for policy evaluation – this pe- role of Portuguese social canteens in the fight riod was of crucial relevance. Secondly, as we against poverty - characterized by a triangle of are dependent on the distributed questionnaires, dimensions deeply discussed in the previous and as there was no other attempt of distribu- paragraphs: it is an emerging phenomenon, tion, we cannot provide a comparison exercise. characterized by a reduced number of studies or Thirdly, following authors like Bachelard of publications focused on the specificity of the (1949), the initial periods of a Program of public problem, and needing an overall perspective policies tends to concentrate the most hetero- and analysis, especially for a given area (the genous opinions which we consider important Northern of Portugal). for providing a less biased landscape of the Following several authors in the literature range of responses. Although the dated period, about Methodology of Scientific Research we consider it provides important insights for (Bauer and Gaskell, 2000; Creswell, 2010), the today’s design of policies in Portugal against most convenient instrument for analyzing phe- poverty. We are aware that different govern- nomena with a such characterization is a survey. ments evaluate differently the Program of Food Let us justify this claim. Emergency in Portugal. Despite this evidence, First, emerging phenomena – like the role of this work is the first article reflecting on the social canteens in the surrounding society – are challenges faced by the Social Canteens of this phenomena which generate complex debates, Program and managed by the Portuguese major doubts and expectations in the involved agents, Non-Profit Institutions – the Holy Houses of their families and in the remaining community. Mercy. Authors like Lakatos and Marconi (1986) sug- Next Section details this design.

134 The Importance of Social Canteens in the Portuguese Emergency Food Program: A Case Study …

3. METHODOLOGICAL PLAN OF with an explanatory text of the project objec- RESEARCH – A SURVEY OF THE tives (as well with information related to the ex- SOCIAL CANTEENS OF THE HOLY pected time necessary to answer and the nature HOUSES OF MERCY IN NORTHERN of the questions). The responses were received PORTUGAL through an electronic platform. A message of confirmation was sent via e-mail. During the re- Considering the previous statements, we search and after the data collection, it was nec- aimed to accomplish the following goals with essary to choose the main procedures for ana- this survey: describe the perceptions of the lyzing the collected data. With this in mind, we functioning of the Social Canteens; observe the selected the appropriated analysis functions in evolution of the number of distributed meals; SPSS (version 20-c by IBM Corp. SPSS STA- study the institutional interlinkages, namely the TISTICS). We chose an application for the sta- relationships with Social Security; and contrib- tistical processing data and qualitative analysis, ute to the discussion about the evaluation of the i.e., the content analysis of the open answers of Program of Food Emergency. The survey was the survey questions. adjusted to the methodology of the National Confederation of Institutions of Social Action 4. EMPIRICAL SECTION – RESULTS (CNIS), whose authorization for application re- AND DISCUSSION sulted from contact between one of this pro- 4.1 Results ject’s co-authors with the Chairman of CNIS. From the sample of the institutions listed by After collecting the responses to the question- CNIS, we expanded the application of the sur- naire, we analyzed them. We intended to evalu- vey to the six districts in the Northern Portugal ate the contributions to the Program of Food in the study of the CNIS, referring to the years Emergency of several Holy Houses of Mercy in of 2012 and 2013 (the years of the establishment the following districts: Braga, Bragança, Porto, of the Program that we wanted to analyze). Viana do Castelo and Vila Real. The 62 Houses Considering that the survey was adjusted to of these districts composed our initial sample. the methodology of the CNIS, there was no In Portugal, there are approximately 400 Holy need to execute a pre-test, and its application Houses of Mercy, according to Mourao and ran from November 28th, 2014, to December Enes’ (2016) computation. In this work, we 15th, 2014, with a total of 18 days available to only focused on the 62 Holy Houses of Mercy answer the survey. The form of the question- in the north region of Portugal (NUTS II North). naire may be accessed through the web-link This region has 5 administrative districts as fol- http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/han- lows: Viana do Castelo, Braga, Porto, Vila Real dle/1822/36222 . and Bragança. Of these 62 potential members of It was necessary to determine the objectives the Directorate Boards of each Holy House of before beginning the process. Our questionnaire Mercy respondents, 36 answered the question- had five major objectives. The first objective naire. These 36 respondents were distributed in was to collect data about the spatial focus of the the following way: 10 (from the district of Program assumed by the 62 Houses in Northern Braga), 8 (from Porto), 8 (from Bragança), 6 Portugal. The second objective was to deepen (from Vila Real), and 4 (from Viana do the knowledge about the process of production Castelo). Figure 3 exhibits the distribution of and distribution of meals to the recipients. The these 36 responders (who were all members of third objective was to characterize the place the Directorate Boards) by Portuguese adminis- where the distributed meals were given. The trative district. fourth and fifth objectives aimed at analyzing As Figure 3 shows, 22 of the 36 respondents the adequacy of the supply of meals to the re- are in the coastal area of Portugal (Viana do lated demand to evaluate the level of commit- Castelo, Braga, and Porto). The collected data ment of each House to alert the (potential and include the following: place of production of the effective) users. distributed meals, place of consumption of the For our survey, a first contact was made by distributed meals, evolution of the numbers of telephone to determine which Holy Houses of distributed meals, involvement of the institu- Mercy actually had a social canteen and assess tions (Social Canteens) in alerting potential us- their willingness to participate in the study. ers, and finally suggested improvements ac- Then, the survey was sent by letter and e-mail cording to the respondents.

135 Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais, nº 55

Figure 3 – Geographical Distribution of the Holy Houses of Mercy that responded to the survey (%).

17% 28%

11%

22% 22%

Braga Bragança Porto Viana do C astelo Vila Real

Source: Own calculus

Our survey revealed that most of the sur- each Holy House of Mercy). The only exception veyed social canteens produce meals at the de- to this pattern is the Holy House of Mercy of partments/buildings of the Holy Houses of Braga, which pays a private firm to acquire the Mercy (which follows the Cooperation Agree- meals provided at its Social Canteen. ments established between the Institute for So- cial Assistance/Ministry for Social Security and

Figure 4 exhibits the responses related to the place of consumption of the distributed meals.

Source: Own calculus based on the survey responses

Almost all of the respondents (93%)4 shared tutional places/buildings in the cases in which that the majority of meals are consumed at the the Holy House of Mercy has an ‘Open An- recipients’ homes (Figure 4). This also follows swer’, i.e., community centers or meeting the terms previewed in the Cooperation Agree- places; during 2012, the Holy House of Mercy ments (signed by the Institute for Social Assis- of São Miguel de Refojos () tance and the various Holy Houses of Mercy). was an example of this. The Cooperation Agreements also make possi- Between 2012 and 2013, there was an in- ble the meals’ consumption at certain insti- crease of 21.6% in the number of meals daily

4 The sample error is 10.7% (confidence level, 95%).

136 The Importance of Social Canteens in the Portuguese Emergency Food Program: A Case Study …

distributed per social canteen (from a total of allowing development of an objective, system- 2118 to 2575). This increase is an additional atic, and quantitative description of the content proof of the enlarged radius of this program’s of the expressions, aiming for a proper interpre- actions because of an increase in the identified tation”. Obviously, there are certain require- number of impoverished people in Portugal dur- ments to be checked to avoid biases in the re- ing this period. Figure 1 has already highlighted lated interpretation. The first requirement is, af- the prominence of this increase in the inner ar- ter properly preparing the collection of data, to eas of the country (Bragança and Vila Real). identify the targeted themes. In our case, we fo- Considering the current financial-economic cused on the “suggested improvements” that the crisis that the country is facing, some Holy respondents identified. Then, the researcher has Houses of Mercy consider that the value of 2.5 to develop a coding scheme, based on data, the- euros/meal does not support the production ories from the literature and/or empirical stud- cost. These institutions remember the increased ies. The literature criticizing the functioning of costs due to a decrease in the financial support establishments like social canteens pointed to of the Social Security (53% in 2012 and 50% in the autonomy of the codes linked to the collab- 2013) that forced the institutions to pay (more) orators and volunteers, to the expressions re- for the additional meals. They have mentioned lated to the interinstitutional environment and to as an inconvenience the difficult access to some the regulations of the program. We used these areas, especially rural areas, confirming a rela- dimensions as codes for our content analysis. tionship between a lack of support and rural Each member of the team of authors of this pa- places of difficult access/great isolation. per had coded the text as a pre-screening pro- Almost all of the respondents (97%)5 recog- cess and as a pre-test procedure. Although au- nize that their institution is actively involved in thors like Carmo and Ferreira (1998) claim that alerting potential recipients of the meals, which validity and reliability in content analysis fol- is an additional proof favoring the strategic im- low the quality of the coding scheme, we also portance of the institutions in the Program of observed Morse et al (2002). These procedures Food Emergency. returned an alpha of Cronbach higher than 0.8 As further challenges, the respondents (actually, 0.83), which is interpreted as a value warned about the two following issues: a pas- suggesting the reliability of our textual data. sive interpretation of the social grants by the We grouped the various suggestions for the population that receives them and the absence Program’s improvement into the following of notions of self-sustainability or schooling three sets: those focused on Social Assistance, grants to exit precarious contexts characterizing those focused on the linkage among institutions some targeted individuals. and those whose core is centered in the institu- As several authors have warned (Costa, tion and the functioning of the Program. 1998; Carmo, 2010), these issues have a crucial The respondents provided a considerable va- role in the so-called “integration policies” and riety of answers. These answers can be grouped “employment policies”. In this context, several into the following three sets: improvements re- respondents also highlight the serious chal- garding the rules/requests coming from the lenges arising from new groups of impover- Ministry of Social Security, improvements in ished people, most of them without the visibility the interlinkage among the participating institu- characterizing the standard targeted groups. tions, and improvements related to the function- ing of the Program. Let us identify all these sug- 4.2 Discussion of Results and Suggested gestions. improvements Regarding the connection with the Ministry of Social Security, the respondents suggest a For the answers to questions 4, 5 and 6, we higher clarity regarding the functioning of the opted for content analysis. Given the nature of Program; an enlargement of the number of con- “questions of open answer”, several researchers tracted meals without maximum limits (e.g., favor content analysis over other types of meth- without a maximum number of available odological analysis. Following Berelson (1952 meals); periodic visits/inspections to monitor cit. in Carmo and Ferreira, 1998: 251), content the work of the social canteens; a reduction of analysis is defined as a “research technique the period used by the Social Security to transfer

5 The sample error is 10.0% (confidence level, 95%).

137 Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais, nº 55 the funds to the Social Canteens; an enlarge- 5. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICA- ment of the agreed functions to reply to the TIONS AND FURTHER CHAL- emerging social needs; and a higher level of LENGES monitoring to better assess the range of the pro- gram’s effects and the changes in the well-being This article is one of the first to discuss the of the targeted populations. role and challenges of Portuguese social can- Regarding the interlinkage among institu- teens since the start of the evolving Program fo- tions, the respondents suggest a higher connec- cused on Food Emergency (2012). In this work, tion with the local partners/institutions through we focused on the social canteens managed by a better accompaniment of the families in the some of the oldest Portuguese institutions of the training effort, the volunteer work, and the labor Social Economy – the Holy Houses of Mercy. market; a higher involvement of the par- We surveyed the social canteens of the Holy ishes/municipalities in developing new exten- Houses of Mercy in Northern Portugal. We sions of partnerships; a higher inter-relationship aimed to observe the evolution of the distributed among the partners to better alert potential ben- meals and the disparity across the region, and eficiaries not yet considered by the Program we also intended to collect the perceptions of (“the invisible poor”), and the development of the Holy Houses of Mercy regarding their major new partnerships, especially in rural areas, to challenges. As the supporting Programs evolve minimize the difficulties of transportation and toward more mature levels, we hope this discus- mobility. sion will help all those involved in this effort to In the functioning of the Program, the re- gain improved results. spondents of the social canteens of the Holy Our survey reveals three major conclusions. Houses of Mercy suggest an increase in the First, the program had an impressive and rapid number of users of the Program; an increase in enlargement – not only in terms of geographical the number of contracted/granted meals for the establishment but also in the number of distrib- more needy areas/cases; an increase in the sup- uted meals (increases of more than 30% per port/grant paid per meal; alternative ways to year). Second, the responders (mostly directors transport the meals to the less mobile popula- of the Holy Houses of Mercy supervising the so- tions (especially those in rural and mountain ar- cial canteens) recognized many possibilities for eas); the development of new types of support the Program’s improvement. Third, there is an for families that are able to cook their own urgent need for a better definition of the roles of meals; and training sessions for those searching the agents and institutions participating in the for work and covering a range of alternative top- Program. ics (e.g., home management). Therefore, we posit two main policy impli- The suggestions provided by the respondents cations. The first implication relates to the need follow other proposals from the literature. Au- for a better interlinkage among the different thors like Steinberg and Weisbrod (2017) have players fighting poverty and undernutrition in suggested the need of a reinforcement of the in- the population. The second implication relates terinstitutional collaboration as the social needs to the existence of a global operation of verifi- face increasing challenges. Even if the social cation and check-up of all the social canteens in needs have differences among the socio-eco- the country, extending the present methodology nomic regions, increasing challenges in terms of that was only applied to a sample of these social severity (like economic crises or fiscal adjust- canteens. ment programs in areas mainly occupied by We recognize several opportunities to ex- aged and retired people) ask for dynamic mod- tend this research. In this sense, for future re- els of share of information, resources and efforts search, it would be interesting to gauge some is- of the acting institutions. Other authors have sues, namely “Do the meals of social canteens also revealed as critical phenomena are excel- effectively reach those in need, even those more lent opportunities for a renewal of the interinsti- geographically isolated?” We also want to en- tutional collaboration (Porto et al, 2015). Fi- large the surveyed years and contribute to a lon- nally, authors like Soares et al (2012) also sug- gitudinal study. For this purpose, we want to gest the need for a search of efficiency in the survey the institutions in these most recent years distribution of meals and in the stimulated wel- and highlight the most significant changes. fare among the beneficiaries and their fami- Therefore, it would be interesting to survey the lies/communities. users/recipients of the distributed meals. We

138 The Importance of Social Canteens in the Portuguese Emergency Food Program: A Case Study …

recognize the potentiality of detailing these us- Analysis or Cluster Analysis), which may be ers by gender, age, place of birth, where they helpful in order to explore similarities and dif- lived when they resorted to the canteen, whether ferences among the surveyed canteens. We also they had family background, whether they had consider as relevant the generalization of the already been flagged by Social Security, or scope of this work to the European Union. How- whether they had some kind of work. This exer- ever, the different senses of ‘canteens’ around cise would let us compare their perceptions with Europe and the absence of a competent and uni- the directors’ perceptions, which would defi- fied database do not allow this work at this mo- nitely provide a more integrated perspective of ment. Finally, we want to compare these results the Program and the functioning of social can- with the results achieved by organizations, such teens. We also intend to run multidimensional as the National Confederation of Social Institu- analyses (such as Multiple Correspondence tions, as soon as these results become available.

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140 The Importance of Social Canteens in the Portuguese Emergency Food Program: A Case Study …

APPENDIX A

List of the surveyed Holy Houses of Mercy (Santas Casas da Misericórdia).

Region District Municipality Surveyed SCM

Amares Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Barcelos Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Barcelos Braga Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Braga Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Fafe Braga Famalicão Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Famalicão Guimarães Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Guimarães Cabeceiras de Basto Santa Casa da Misericórdia of S. Miguel de Refojos Vila Verde Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Vila Verde Vieira do Minho Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Vieira do Minho Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Vizela Carrezeda de Ansiães Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Carrezeda de Ansiães

Freixo de Espada à Cinta Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Freixo de Espada à

Cinta

Miranda do Douro Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Miranda do Douro Bragança Mogadouro Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Mogadouro Moncorvo Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Moncorvo Macedo de Cavaleiros Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Macedo de Cavaleiros Vila Flor Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Vila Flor Vinhais Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Vinhais Amarante Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Amarante Baião Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Baião North Maia Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Maia Marco de Canavezes Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Marco de Canavezes Porto Paços de Ferreira Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Paços de Ferreira Porto Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Porto Póvoa de Varzim Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Póvoa de Varzim Vila Nova de Gaia Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Vila Nova de Gaia Arcos de Valdevez Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Arcos de Valdevez Viana do Caminha Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Caminha Castelo Melgaço Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Melgaço Ponte de Lima Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Ponte de Lima

Region District Municipality Surveyed SCM

Boticas Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Boticas Chaves Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Chaves North Vila Real Mondim de Basto Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Mondim de Basto Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Montalegre Murça Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Murça Valpaços Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Valpaços

141