Hunger Pains - by Kayleigh Garthwaite (Paperback)

About the Book

We know the statistics, but what does it feel like to be forced to turn to foodbanks for help? What does it take to get emergency food, and what's in the food parcel? This is a powerful insight into the harsh reality of foodbank use from the inside.

Book Synopsis

WINNER OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY PETER TOWNSEND PRIZE 2017

Welcome to Foodbank Britain, where emergency food provision is an increasingly visible and controversial feature of ongoing austerity. We know the statistics, but what does it feel like to be forced to turn to foodbanks for help? What does it take to get emergency food, and what's in the food parcel?

Kayleigh Garthwaite conducted hundreds of hours of interviews while working in a Trussell Trust foodbank. She spoke to people like Anna and her 11 year old daughter Daisy who were eating out of date food since Anna left her job due to mental health problems. Glen explained the shame he felt using the foodbank having taken on a zero hours contract. Pregnant Jessica walked two miles to the foodbank because she couldn't afford public transport.

This provocative book provides a much needed voice for foodbank users and volunteers in the UK, and a powerful insight into the realities of foodbank use from the inside.

Review Quotes

"informative, engaging and heartfelt...a crucial stepping stone in ending the stigma surrounding foodbanks, and I urge everyone to read it." The Student

"[Garthwaite] poses a serious challenge to contemporary thinking about the factors that drive people to use foodbanks, dispelling the myths that people are seeking emergency help because of their chaotic life styles and the irresponsible life choices they make." Counterfire

"A fascinating insight into the use and operation of foodbanks. Sadly, this is becoming an important subject for understanding modern British life, and this book paints a detailed and sympathetic picture of how they work and the social problems they address." David Griffiths, University of Stirling

"A good book to recommend to people who have little awareness or who are sceptical about the reality of food poverty in Britain today." Urban Bulletin

"An accessible account of food poverty and foodbanks in the UK which should be taken forward to address UK food poverty." Antipode

"In this accessible and powerful book, Kayleigh Garthwaite gives voice to the people behind the data, explaining in a precise and well-informed way the very human tragedy that our current crisis of poverty represents." Julia Unwin, CBE, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

"Open[s] our eyes to what the benefits system is doing to us...rooted in high quality research; and [engages] our minds and our emotions." Citizen's Income Trust

"Providing an invaluable window on the use of foodbanks, including compelling accounts of the people who come for help, this book is essential reading for anyone wanting to get beyond the political rhetoric." Valerie Tarasuk, University of Toronto

"There were no foodbanks in the UK in the 1970s - we had no need of them. Kayleigh Garthwaite carefully describes a tragic disaster that was entirely avoidable and which could be ended within just a few years." Danny Dorling, Oxford University

"Written with passion and compassion this is a searingly honest reflection on Garthwaite's experience of being a volunteer, and others' experience of being in dire need." Elizabeth Dowler, University of Warwick

"Written with remarkable clarity and compassion, anyone who wants to participate in the converstation about foodbanks, from cabinet ministers to foodbank volunteers, would do well to read this book." Janet Poppendieck, author, Sweet Charity? and Professor Emerita of Sociology, Hunter College, City University of New York, and Senior Fellow, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute

About the Author

Dr Kayleigh Garthwaite is a Birmingham Fellow in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology, University of Birmingham, UK. Kayleigh explores issues of poverty, stigma and welfare reform through qualitative and ethnographic research. She is author of Hunger Pains: life inside foodbank Britain (Policy Press, 2016) and co-author of Poverty and insecurity: Life in 'low-pay, no-pay' Britain (Policy Press, 2012), winners of the Peter Townsend Prize 2017 and 2013 respectively. She can be followed on Twitter @KA_Garthwaite