A Plate of Hope: Institutional Creation in Emergency Food Relief

In a context of climate emergency, extreme events (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, or fires) are increasing in frequency and impact (Nyberg & Wright, 2020), severely disrupting access to food, water, and shelter. Research has suggested that, as official crisis relief responses to such extreme events may be slow or insufficient, new organizational forms and modes of action appear in the crisis-disrupted communities (Lanzara, 1983). More recently, studies have shown how such impromptu emergency relief groups and local ventures offer compassion and provide alternative solutions to alleviate suffering (Majchrzak, Jarvenpaa, & Hollingshead, 2007; Shephard & Williams, 2014; Farny, Kibler, & Down, 2019). These groups tend to be ephemeral organizations with “no past and no future, they live in the present” (Lanzara, 1983: 88), creating a locally-embedded “space for decision and action” (ibid: 73).