Welcome to Rights Not Charity. This podcast series is about a big idea—ensuring everyone has enough food; not as a charitable gift, but as a fundamental human right.

We are the Global Solidarity Alliance for Food, Health, and Social Justice. We’re a growing collective of foodbank workers, researchers and public policy advocates, and this podcast represents our voices.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many food banks in rich countries? How did nations come to see food charity as a normal and  necessary response to poverty and food insecurity? Food insecurity is a much bigger problem than food banks could ever solve. We need a transformative solution to food insecurity that’s rooted in more than charity - but let’s understand how we got here.

Forty years ago, food banks exploded across the United States. They quickly spread to Canada and more recently to the UK. The food bank model is promoted as a ‘win-win’ solution to both hunger and food waste in over 100 countries now. But we disagree, and here’s why. The causes of hunger are complex and can’t be solved simply by redirecting excess food.

Our food system is rooted in ongoing legacies of white supremacy, power and domination - from settler colonialism and land dispossession to plantation slavery and industrial agriculture. The food system doesn’t serve everyone equally. It makes our bodies sick, and damages our soil and water. Hunger is rooted in much larger systems of inequity, including structural poverty and systemic racism. Hunger is an equity problem, not a problem of food supply.

Access to good food is a human right and public policies should protect this basic right. But the food system is controlled by corporations motivated by profit, not rights. Corporations have  become a powerful driver and beneficiary of the food charity system. We’ll shine a light on the impact of corporate control of our food system.

Our Alliance is advocating for transformative solutions to the unjust conditions that cause hunger, food insecurity and ill-health. Tune in as we share those ideas. In the Rights Not Charity podcast series, we’ll hear from a range of diverse voices. We’ll learn about grassroots action and social movements, as well as policy interventions, legal mechanisms, and more. We want to shift the conversation from food charity to food justice to end bread lines for good. Follow our work--and join our movement--at rightsnotcharity.org. Let’s recognize food as a pathway to health, justice, and healing. Solidarity, not charity; human rights, not bragging rights; political will, not goodwill.