The Privatization and Localization of Welfare: How the Social Safety Net Serves Florida's Big Bend

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review how, in the context of welfare devolution and privatization, the social safety net in Florida's Big Bend serves the region's food insecure population. It does not examine with precision how well the safety net serves the welfare needs of the region, but rather provides an illustration of how a "private" and "local" system makes food and housing assistance available to those in need. The focus of attention will be upon two of the region's most important nonprofit, nongovernmental providers of emergency services, The Shelter, the largest homeless shelter in the Big Bend, and the America's Second Harvest of the Big Bend (ASHBB), the region's largest food bank.