The Uneven Legal Geographies of Nutrition Entitlement Programs in the United States. Realizing or Hindering the Right to Food?

Authors

Joshua Lohnes, West Virginia University
Mackenzie Steele, University of Miami School of Law

Abstract

Unlike many countries across the world, the United States government does not formally recognize the Right to Food in law. However, it funds and administers nutrition entitlement programs that play a significant role in mitigating hunger and food insecurity across the country. Reflecting on the socio-political dynamics that shape the legal spaces of nutrition entitlement in different places, this Article explores the uneven geographies of the Right to Food in two other countries (South Africa and Ecuador) and then turns its focus to the United States. This Article offers an overview of the two most extensive nutrition entitlement programs (SNAP and school nutrition programs) and their implementation at the state level in West Virginia. The case study of West Virginia points to the key role that local jurisdictions also play in fulfilling or hindering the Right to Food in specific places, and suggests that legal spaces there are also important sites of Right to Food organizing and advocacy.

Recommended Citation

Joshua Lohnes and Mackenzie Steele, The Uneven Legal Geographies of Nutrition Entitlement Programs in the United States. Realizing or Hindering the Right to Food?, 31 U. MIA Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 15 (2024)
Available at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umiclr/vol31/iss1/5