Food banks are organisations which occupy an uncomfortable position, being seen both as a manifestation of caring communities as well as an undesirable feature of neoliberal government. By focusing on the encounters between volunteers and food bank users within these organisations, we excavate their caring side to find three forms of compassion: compassion ‘for’, compassion ‘with’ and compassion ‘within’. We show that while compassion ‘for’ can lead to countless selfless acts, it remains embedded within neoliberal discourses. This can serve to reinforce distance and inequalities between giver (volunteer) and receiver (food bank user), creating a chain of indebtedness as compassion becomes part of a transactional exchange offered to those seen as worthy. Compassion ‘with’ others focuses on the person rather than the problem of food poverty and manifests itself in expressions of connection and responsibility which can, however, become possessive at times. Compassion ‘within’ is a form of compassion that, although less visible and demonstrative in response to the immediate suffering of others, provokes ethical and political reflection for individual volunteers who at times may challenge the very need for food banks. By grounding compassion in a specific social and organisational context, we highlight its relational nature and the dynamic and uncomfortable relation between different forms of compassion in the context of UK food banks. We conclude that compassion is a socially embedded and differentiated relationship which can activate affective, ethical and political responses to food poverty.

粮食银行是处于不利地位的组织，既被视为关怀社区的体现，又是新自由主义政府的不良特征。通过关注这些组织中志愿者与食品银行用户之间的相遇，我们挖掘了他们的关怀一面，以找到三种同情形式：同情“为”，同情为“有”和同情为“内”。我们表明，同情“为”可以导致无数无私的作为，但它仍然根植于新自由主义的话语中。当同情心成为提供给那些被认为有价值的交易者的交易交换的一部分时，这可以加强赠与者（志愿者）与接收者（食物银行用户）之间的距离和不平等，从而形成债务链。与他人“同情”关注的是人，而不是粮食贫困问题，并表现在联系和责任感的表达上，然而，联系和责任感有时可能会占有。“内心”的同情心是一种同情心的形式，尽管它在回应他人的直接苦难时不那么明显和具示范性，但却激起了个体志愿者的道德和政治反思，他们有时可能会挑战对食物储备的需求。通过在特定的社会和组织背景下建立同情心，我们强调了它的关系性质以及在英国食品银行的背景下不同形式的同情心之间动态而令人不适的关系。我们得出的结论是，同情心是一种社会根深蒂固的差异化关系，可以激发人们对粮食贫困的情感，道德和政治回应。