Forms of autonomy and dependence in food aid: unravelling how they are related and perceived by recipients

Dependence is an inherent aspect of human existence, yet independence and autonomy are powerful ideals, especially where they seem lacking. In the case of food aid, the dependence that it signifies is often experienced as shameful. Food justice scholars and practitioners advocate that people with low incomes should have greater autonomy in exercising their right to food, for example by receiving cash transfers instead of food donations. In this paper, we challenge an understanding of autonomy defined in opposition to dependence. Using a relational autonomy lens, we unravel how practices of autonomy are interrelated with forms of dependence in a food aid initiative. By better understanding these interrelations, and how forms of autonomy and dependence are experienced by recipients, it becomes possible to have more informed debates about desirable and undesirable ways of doing food aid. Our analysis is rooted in an ethnographic case study of a pilot program for money-based food aid in the Netherlands. This program gave food-insecure households a weekly budget to buy healthy groceries at regular stores. We unravel how this form of food aid shifted dependencies compared to the parcel-based aid it replaced, and how this reshaped practices of autonomy for recipients. Through the themes ‘concealing and revealing charity’, ‘upholding norms and caring through food choices’, and ‘budget management with a safety net’, we demonstrate how individual competencies, social relations, technologies, and institutional structures shape forms of dependence and autonomy. We show how recipients appreciated these forms as they navigated the demands of consumer society, motherhood, public welfare programs, and living on a low income. We also note that receiving a charitable budget for food heightened a feeling of vulnerability to sanctions from public welfare providers who might mistake it as income. We conclude that providing appropriate food aid includes self-determination in meeting food needs and the ability to uphold the social norms of consumer choice and financial responsibility, while also embedding such practices in relations of care that alleviate stress, protect the grocery budget, and support healthy diets.