Center for Environmental Studies, Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry, and Innovation (iCubed), Virginia Commonwealth University, 1000 West Cary Street, Richmond, VA232841, USA.
Department of Nutrition, West Chester University, West Chester, PA, USA.
Public Health Nutr. 2022 Apr;25(4):1045-1049. doi: 10.1017/S1368980021003748. Epub 2021 Sep 17.
In common narratives of emergency food assistance, donors likely believe their efforts directly manifest as people consuming their donated food. For example, a person donating canned lima beans during a canned food drive may visualise someone eventually eating those lima beans. However, cultural and socio-economic barriers often exist that prevent people from accessing and consuming the donated food. These barriers are often complex and otherwise well-intentioned donors, volunteers and organisations may not initially consider them.
This commentary article, which draws from existing US emergency food systems literature, uses the imagery of an acorn squash one might find at a US food pantry to conceptualise these barriers in a straightforward way.
Examining emergency food assistance through the lens of the acorn squash problem can help donors, volunteers and organisations better connect with food-insecure people. The lens of the acorn squash problem also allows for deeper critiques of some practices of emergency food systems.
在常见的紧急食品援助叙述中，捐赠者可能认为他们的努力直接表现为人们食用他们捐赠的食品。例如，在罐装食品义卖期间捐赠罐装利马豆的人可能会想象有人最终会吃那些利马豆。然而，文化和社会经济障碍常常存在，使人们无法获得和食用捐赠的食品。这些障碍往往很复杂，而且其他善意的捐赠者、志愿者和组织可能最初没有考虑到这些障碍。
本文是一篇评论文章，借鉴了美国紧急食品系统的现有文献，使用了在美国食品储藏室可能找到的那种橡子南瓜的意象，以一种简单直接的方式来描述这些障碍。
通过橡子南瓜问题的视角来审视紧急食品援助，可以帮助捐赠者、志愿者和组织更好地与粮食不安全的人建立联系。橡子南瓜问题的视角也允许对紧急食品系统的一些做法进行更深入的批判。
