Beyond the breadline: a relational and comparative framework for studying charitable food provision in high-income countries

Charitable food provision (CFP) has become a central response to poverty in high-income countries. Despite growing scholarly attention, there is a notable lack of conceptual tools for the systematic comparison of CFP across different contexts. To address this gap, this article proposes a relational research framework grounded in field theory. It situates CFP at the intersection of three institutional domains: welfare systems, civil society, and the agri-food system. It then introduces three dimensions for comparative study: the diachronic (field emergence and consolidation), the synchronic (field structure, boundaries, and coordination), and the everyday life (recipients’ navigation of the CFP field). The framework offers a complementary perspective to existing studies by emphasizing institutional embeddedness, meso-level interactions, and survival strategies, while enabling systematic yet context-sensitive comparison. This article thus lays a foundation for future comparative research and invites further theoretical development that would advance understanding of CFP’s role in contemporary poverty governance.