Consuming Poverty: the Unexpected Politics of Food Aid in an Era of Austerity

City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2015 Consuming Poverty: The Unexpected Politics of Food Aid in an Era of Austerity Maggie Dickinson Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/548 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] CONSUMING POVERTY: THE UNEXPECTED POLITICS OF FOOD AID IN AN ERA OF AUSTERITY By MAGGIE DICKINSON A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 © 2015 MAGGIE DICKINSON All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Anthropology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Leith Mullings October 28, 2014 ________________________________________________ Date Chair of the Examining Committee Gerald Creed October 28, 2014 ________________________________________________ Date Executive Officer Jeff Maskovsky Frances Fox Piven Julie Guthman Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract CONSUMING POVERTY: THE UNEXPECTED POLITICS OF FOOD AID IN AN ERA OF AUSTERITY By Maggie Dickinson Advisor: Professor Leith Mullings This dissertation tracks the remarkable growth of food assistance in the U.S. over the past fifteen years and asks what this expansion of food aid means for poor people living in New York City. Much of the scholarly literature on welfare policy in the U.S argues that social programs have become more stingy and punitive, particularly since the passage of welfare reform in 1996. On the surface, this does not seem to be the case for the food stamp program or for emergency food providers like soup kitchens and food pantries. Since 2001 food stamp rolls have risen 120% in New York City, reflecting national trends. Today nearly fifteen percent of Americans are enrolled in the program and nearly as many have accessed food from an emergency food provider. Prior to welfare reform in the 1990’s, welfare recipients and their children made up the majority of the food stamp caseload. Today, the typical food stamp recipient is a low-wage worker who does not earn enough to afford basic household necessities like food. Far from a simple return to Keynesian welfare policy, the growth of food assistance reflects a broader restructuring of the US welfare state, which increasingly subsidizes low wage labor but does little for the unemployed. By placing the growth of food assistance programs squarely in the context of welfare reform, Consuming Poverty demonstrates how welfare programs have been restructured to benefit the working poor, punish the unemployed and produce an enormous iv network of quasi-private charities that are expected to fill the gaps in the safety net. This transformation of the social safety net is aimed at regulating work and, to a lesser extent, health in an era of low wages, flexible employment and a costly obesity epidemic that disproportionately affects poor people. v Acknowledgements This research would not have been possible without the many North Brooklyn residents who shared their time, experiences and friendship with me. Most important were my friends at the North Brooklyn Food Pantry who welcomed me with open arms, especially Katrina, Ada, Lucy, Helena, Sunshine, Christine, Jen and Ann. Though they are rarely recognized for the work they do, these women are the backbone of their communities. The world would be worse off without them and the many people like them who do the daily labor of making sure people are cared for. They are humble heroes. I am also grateful to the Wenner Gren Foundation for funding this research, for the Instructional Technology Fellows program at Macaulay Honors College and especially for the support of Dr. Joseph Ugoretz. I was blessed to have the steadfast encouragement and support of Dr. Leith Mullings, who was my advisor and mentor. Her wisdom and her commitment to social justice have been a constant source of inspiration. I also want to thank Jeff Maskovsky for helping me skillfully navigate graduate school and Frances Fox Piven for sharing her time and her always sharp political analysis with me as I developed this work. Thanks, also, to Julie Guthman, whose encouragement and practical advice have been invaluable. Thanks also to Jan Poppendieck and Nancy Romer for their friendship and unwavering commitment to food justice. I have been lucky to have a group of peers who have challenged me to keep going when it felt like the writing would never end. Thanks to Karen Williams for organizing the writing group that kept me going, for reading nearly every chapter, and for being a constant source of insight, constructive criticism and friendship. Thanks to Harmony Goldberg, Sophie Bjork- James, Daisy Deomampo, Ujju Agarwal, Nazia Kazi, Preeti Sampat, and Risa Cromer for vi reading chapters as they were being developed and for helping me to sharpen my writing and analysis. Thanks to my mother, Karen Dickinson, for giving me a quiet place to write at several critical junctures. Thanks also to the many people who helped care for my family as I worked on this project, including Mary Katherine Youngblood, Ora Yemini, Niseema, Vinita Jacob, Ms. Frannie and Ms. Janine at John Oravezc and Ms. Denise, Ms. Noa and Ms. Ogando PS 84. And most importantly, thanks to Emmanuel and Diego, for reminding me that there is more to life than work and to James Case-Leal for making it all possible. vii Table of Contents Abstract iv Acknowledgements vi List of Abbreviations x List of Table and Figures xi Chapter 1: The Unexpected Politics of Food Aid in an Era of Austerity 1 Restructuring Welfare in the Global City 5 The High Costs of Cheap Food 13 Welfare Reform and the Race to the Bottom of the Low Wage Labor Market 16 Governing the Poor in the Luxury City 21 Studying the Politics of Hunger: A Note on Methods 23 Chapter 2: The Carrot: Welfare as Work Support 32 Combining Work and Welfare 37 Food, Functionality and Flexible Labor 44 Discipline and Downward Mobility 49 Recalibrating the Welfare State 57 Chapter 3: The Stick: Food Aid for the Unemployed 62 Food Aid and the New Paternalism 66 Working for Food 70 Failure to Comply, Sanctions and Bureaucratic Disentitlement 82 Hunger, Food Insecurity and the Implications of Welfare Reform 94 Chapter 4: Consuming the Surplus: Emergency Food as Political Capital 99 The Growth of EFP’s 103 Hunger and the Limits of Compassionate Labor 112 From Client to Volunteer 117 Welfare, Work and the Limits of Voluntarism 125 Chapter 5: Food and the Politics of Reproduction 132 The Thrifty Food Plan 139 Intensifying Labor and the Work of Poverty 140 Hunger and Housing 145 Time, Money and Health 150 Healthy Eating and the Politics of Choice 157 Chapter 6: Consuming Poverty 164 The New Politics of Poverty 171 Selective Hegemony and the Politics of Consumption 174 The Contested Politics of Food Aid 178 Food Justice and the Politics of the Possible 182 Appendix A: SNAP Participation Rates by State (2010) 190 viii Appendix B: A Note on the History and Definition of the Welfare State in the U.S. 191 Defining Welfare and the Welfare State 191 Historical Development(s) of the US Welfare State 192 Bibliography 196 ix List of Abbreviations ABAWD – Able-Bodied Adult Without Dependents CBO – Community Based Organization EFCB – Emergency Financial Control Board EFP – Emergency Food Program EFAP – Emergency Food Assistance Program EITC – Earned Income Tax Credit ES – Eligibility Specialist – a person who processes SNAP applications FSET – Food Stamp Employment and Training Program FTC – Failure to Comply HPNAP – Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program HRA – Human Resources Administration JOS – Job Opportunity Specialist – a city worker who processes cash assistance applications MDR – Mandatory Dispute Review NCA – Non-Cash Assistance food stamp case PRWORA – Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act SNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program TEFAP – The Emergency Food Assistance Program TANF – Temporary Assistance to Needy Families USDA – United States Department of Agriculture WEP – Work Experience Program x List of Table and Figures Table 1. Expenditures on Social Insurance and Means-Tested Transfer Programs, pg. 10 Figure 1. A Poster that hangs in New York City Welfare offices, pg. 34 Figure 2. An Advertisement produced by the New York City Department of Health, pg. 136 xi Chapter 1: The Unexpected Politics of Food Aid in an Era of Austerity Lester Towns, a soft-spoken, middle aged African American man sat across the table from me, patiently explaining his job and its challenges. He is an eligibility specialist (ES), one of the welfare office workers who certify Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamp)1 applications for New York City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA). He conducts interviews with applicants and determines whether or not the person applying is eligible for benefits. He and the other ES’s I met described their frustrations, few of which were surprising. They complained of equipment that is old and frequently malfunctions, too much work and too few employees to do it all, too little pay and too little respect, both from the applicants coming in and from the managers who direct the flow of their work. But Mr. Towns’ biggest frustration was a new attitude from management and city officials that in his opinion was “misleading the people about everybody who is eligible for food stamps.” When I asked him to elaborate, he replied, “the policy with the city is when in doubt, give it out.” This liberal attitude toward food aid is striking in what is generally described as an era of austerity (Hall, et al.

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