The Growth of Food Aid in Sweden - How Demand and Supply are Transforming Charitable Organisations

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyse the growth in food aid in Sweden, and how it affects the non-profit organisations providing it. The particular type of food aid in focus is large-scale collaborations between charitable non-profit organisations and the food industry, through which food surplus is turned into food aid for people in food insecurity. The first examples of such food aid emerged less than 10 years ago in Sweden, but it has since experienced a dramatic growth. The development in Sweden follows a pattern known from many other European countries, with the exception that it is going faster, as if Sweden is catching up. This makes food aid in Sweden an interesting case for an empirical study. The article is based on an interview study performed in 2022. Staff and managers at two large, national organisations were interviewed about how the rapid growth in food aid has affected their work and the institutional logics of their organisations. They also provided their thoughts on the role of food aid in Swedish society. One of the main findings is that the growth in food aid bring both the benefit of more people in need receiving help, and the challenge of strain as well as concerns regarding ethics and mission drift in the organisations. Another finding is that the growth is driven by both a growth in demand for food aid, but also by a growth in supply of food from the charities and their corporate partnerships.