How the dignity of recipients is violated and protected across various forms of food aid in high-income countries: a scoping review.

Background - Scholars have demonstrated that common ways of performing charitable food aid in high-income countries maintain a powerless and alienated status of recipients. Aiming to protect the dignity of recipients, alternative forms of food assistance have taken shape. However, an in-depth understanding of dignity in the context of food aid is missing.
Methods - We undertook a scoping review guided by a social dignity lens, to outline ways in which the dignity of recipients is violated or protected across various forms of food aid in high-income countries. The online database Scopus was used to identify scientific literature addressing food aid in relation to the dignity of recipients in Western, high-income countries. The final selection included 37 articles representing eight forms of food aid in twelve countries, published between 2000 and 2021.
Findings - Across diverse forms of food aid, the selected studies report signs of (in)dignity concerning five dimensions: access to food aid, social interactions, the food, the physical space, and needs beyond food. Moreover, the results show that aspects in the provision of food aid are entangled in particular contexts of food aid through reinforcing or contravening moralities and social hierarchies that impact the dignity of recipients. Research gaps are found in the diversity of forms of food aid studied and the identification of social standards important for recipients.
Discussion and conclusion - Bringing the results of 37 articles together through a social dignity lens articulates the complex and plural ways in which the dignity of recipients is violated or protected. While this review highlights that a blueprint for dignified food aid does not exist in terms of particular practices that inherently promote recipients’ dignity, it does demonstrate the usefulness of a social dignity lens to understand dignity across and in particular food aid contexts.