Food banks in the Netherlands stepping up to the plate: shifting moral and practical responsibilities

This chapter examines how responsibilities for securing citizens’ food needs have been understood and exercised over time in the Netherlands, and how such responsibilities have recently been affected by the emergence of food banks. In order to assess responsibilities for food needs in this relatively rich society, it is necessary to take into account some general circumstances. First, welfare provisions have been diminished due to financial limitations, neoliberal policies and a globalising economy. As a result, income protection has been reduced. Second, people now need more complex bureaucratic skills, as well as financial literacy, to access welfare provisions and to...