Purpose

Drawing on an ethnographic research study, developed in three different food assistance initiatives (FAIs) operating in Portugal, this article seeks to explore the elements that characterize them and the main organizational challenges they face.

Design/methodology/approach

Participant observation was carried out in a surplus food redistribution charity, a soup kitchen and a social supermarket, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with supervisors of these FAIs. The study followed an inductive coding strategy, and a thematic analysis was developed.

Findings

The main results point to an appreciation of the initiatives and the role they play, but they also highlight the existence of several challenges, mainly related to: 1) difficulties in accessing sources of funding, 2) the absence of an intervening state and 3) a scarcity of resources that allow a thorough assessment of their activities and services provided, which weakens the public image of these responses.

Originality/value

The development of food assistance in Europe has a long history. Over the past few years, this sector has grown significantly. Nowadays, it is possible to identify several realities around emergency food provision. However, this heterogeneity has not been sufficiently explored in the literature. In addition, there are few studies that report on the variety of initiatives that coexist in Portugal and establish a comparison between them. The current paper intends to overcome this gap by seeking to understand the main models of food assistance operating in the country.

中文翻译：

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葡萄牙的粮食援助：三种不同背景下的组织挑战

目的

本文利用在葡萄牙开展的三个不同的粮食援助计划 (FAI) 中开展的民族志研究，旨在探索这些计划的特征元素以及他们面临的主要组织挑战。

设计/方法/方法

参与者观察是在一个剩余食物再分配慈善机构、一个施食厨房和一个社会超市进行的，并与这些 FAI 的主管进行了半结构化访谈。该研究遵循归纳编码策略，并进行了主题分析。

发现

主要结果表明对倡议及其所发挥的作用的理解，但它们也强调了存在的几个挑战，主要涉及：1）难以获得资金来源，2）缺乏干预国家和 3）资源稀缺，无法对其活动和提供的服务进行彻底评估，这削弱了这些应对措施的公众形象。

原创性/价值

欧洲粮食援助的发展历史悠久。在过去的几年里，这个领域有了显着的增长。如今，可以确定有关紧急食品供应的几个现实。然而，文献中并未充分探讨这种异质性。此外，很少有研究报告葡萄牙共存的各种举措并在它们之间进行比较。本论文旨在通过了解该国粮食援助的主要模式来克服这一差距。