Introduction: exploring the growth of food charity across Europe

This chapter sets out the key issues with which the book engages. It highlights the range of disparate evidence which is emerging on the rise of food charity from various academic sources across Europe. It discusses the urgent need for a comprehensive and rigorous comparative study of this phenomenon. It sets out the comparative concepts used by authors throughout the book notably food charity, food and poverty. It goes on to examine debates around social and human rights and the role of food waste in food charity, before discussing of the utility of understanding food charity as part of the ‘charity economy’. It ends with an outline of the rest of the book including the methodological approach adopted across the empirical chapters.