Food Justice within U.S.-based Social Work Literature: A Scoping Review

Overview: Progress to ensure all people have access to nutritious, healthy foods relies on social infrastructure invested in food justice. This paper reports the findings of a scoping review of existing social work literature to identify the current knowledge base and knowledge gaps of food justice within the social work profession.Proposal text: Two billion people do not have access to sufficient and nutritious food and experience hunger (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), et al., 2020). These experiences are not exclusive to the global poor; the USDA, ERS reported that 13.8 million households within the food-rich United States were food insecure, and 5.1 million households experienced severe food insecurity in 2020 (Coleman-Jensen et al, 2021). Albeit an issue long impacting marginalized communities in need, inadequate access to food, and subsequently hunger has been further exacerbated by the current COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic continues to devastate people globally in immeasurable and yet unknown ways, estimates for 2019 show that prior to the pandemic almost 690 million people were undernourished, and 2020 estimates project that the pandemic may add an additional 83 to 132 million people (FAO et al., 2020).

With global food insecurity acknowledged as one of the 21st century’s most urgent social issues (Cadieux & Slocum, 2015), it is prudent to recognize that access to food that is nutritious, affordable, culturally-appropriate and preferred is an issue of social justice and a basic human right. While no field or discipline is exclusively responsible for addressing food justice, professions whose code of ethics specifically espouse addressing social problems, challenging social injustice, and valuing human dignity (NASW, 2021), are certainly not exempt. Additionally, the pillars of food justice are centered on power, privilege, and oppression (Levkoe, Brem-Wilson, & Anderson 2018). Therefore, social workers emboldened by ethics and skillfully trained to identify and leverage resources are particularly poised to campaign and advocate for food justice (Conway & Lassiter, 2011).

For the purpose of this paper, the foundational Arksey and O’Malley Scoping Review Methodological Framework was utilized with the acknowledgement that subsequent recommendations and guidance have been articulated to augment the universality of the original methodology (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005; Levac et al., 2010; Colquhoun et al., 2014). The results of this scoping review highlight that few U.S.-based social work scholars and published literature are directly or unequivocally discussing food justice within the field.

Social work practice concentrates on the acute problem of hunger to create interventions through scholarship, education, and practice primarily focused on addressing the critical issue of food insecurity (Himmelheber, 2014). However, solely addressing food insecurity is not holistic nor sufficient to adequately promote food justice. Nevertheless, most food assistance resources familiar to and employed by social workers address food insecurity and lack structural change components to fully address food injustice (Kaiser, 2017). As the primary gatekeepers of food assistance and entitlement programs, social workers must better understand food policies and legislation, and social welfare academic programs must better prepare social workers as change agents and champions of social justice. Food is integral to our existence, to our identities, and to our collective future – food justice informed food policy is the way forward.