Food aid is essential in emergencies, but distributing food alone cannot solve food insecurity. A webinar held on 5 November 2026 explored how poverty, nutrition, public responsibility and environmental sustainability shape the right to adequate food.
Food aid is widely regarded as an essential expression of solidarity. But does distributing food actually address food insecurity? What happens when the food provided contributes to poor health, and who bears the social, environmental, and economic costs of a system built around food donations?
These questions were at the heart of The Hidden Cost of Food Aid, a webinar featuring Professor Martin Caraher, Professor of Food and Public Health at the University of London; Professor Roni Strier of the University of Haifa, a researcher of poverty, social exclusion, and food insecurity and former chair of Israel's National Food Security Council; and Dr. Dorit Adler, President of the Israeli Forum for Sustainable Nutrition.
The webinar explored the limitations of food assistance and the policies needed to address food insecurity through an integrated approach to social justice, public health, and environmental sustainability.
Beyond charity: Addressing the root causes of food insecurity
Professor Martin Caraher highlighted the growing gap between expanding food assistance systems and rising food insecurity, including among low-income working families. Drawing on experiences from the United Kingdom and other countries, he argued that food banks, school meals, and community assistance play an important role but cannot substitute for strong social protection and policies addressing poverty and inequality.
Caraher distinguished between charity-based assistance, which depends on donations and goodwill, and social protection grounded in rights. Drawing on examples from the United States, Brazil, and Mexico, he discussed the potential of cash transfers, stronger welfare systems, and locally supported food provision.
His central argument was that governments must move beyond responding to food insecurity after it occurs and address the economic and social conditions that produce it.
Food security as a question of rights and human dignity
Professor Roni Strier examined food insecurity in Israel, emphasizing its close relationship with poverty and structural inequality. He cautioned against dismissing food aid altogether, particularly in humanitarian emergencies. Referring to Gaza, where more than two million people depend on food assistance for survival, he stressed that criticism of food aid must acknowledge its essential, life-saving role.
At the same time, Strier argued that responsibility for food security cannot rest primarily with civil society organizations. He presented the principles of a national food security policy framework developed in Israel, bringing together social welfare, nutrition, health, environmental sustainability, and human rights.
The framework emphasizes government responsibility, coordination across policy areas, and meaningful public participation.
Strier also drew attention to the human experience of food insecurity. Beyond material deprivation, hunger can involve humiliation, exclusion, and loss of dignity. For this reason, people experiencing poverty must have a voice in shaping the policies that affect their lives.
When food assistance carries health and environmental costs
Dr. Dorit Adler focused on the nutritional quality of food provided through assistance programs. She presented data indicating that ultra-processed foods account for a substantial share of food distributed through food banks and purchased through some public assistance programs. She warned that reliance on unhealthy diets can contribute to chronic disease, rising healthcare costs, and deeper economic vulnerability.
Adler also examined the environmental costs of industrial food production, including land degradation, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions. She argued that donating surplus industrially produced foods may alleviate immediate hunger while reinforcing production and consumption patterns that undermine health and environmental sustainability.
Her proposed direction was to make healthy, sustainable food economically accessible to everyone, reform incentives throughout the food system, and place nutrition and sustainability at the center of food security policies.
From principles to practice: What would a better system look like?
The discussion following the presentations revealed important dilemmas.
Should assistance take the form of cash transfers that preserve individual choice, or should public programs ensure that people receive nutritious food? Could taxes and restrictions on unhealthy products improve public health, or might they increase food prices and deepen inequalities?
Participants also questioned how societies can move towards healthier and more sustainable food systems without undermining livelihoods, increasing food costs, or creating new forms of insecurity.
A recurring concern was the lack of sufficiently developed economic models to assess the costs, benefits, and trade-offs of different transition pathways. Participants called for research that could help policymakers understand not only what needs to change, but how to make those changes feasible and socially equitable.
Despite differences in emphasis, the discussion highlighted a shared recognition that nutrition education and individual choice alone are insufficient. People's diets are shaped by income, food prices, product availability, public policy, and the economic and political influence of the food industry.
The webinar ultimately challenged a fundamental assumption: that distributing more food is necessarily the same as advancing food security. Addressing hunger requires more than emergency assistance. It demands a broader conversation about public responsibility, the distribution of resources and power within food systems, and how to translate the right to adequate food into meaningful public policy.
