From recipe to collective improvisation. An ethnographic vignette about food assistance in Barriera di Milano, Turin

This paper explores the ways in which an urban food assistance project develops in everyday practice. Building on ethnographic fieldwork with the project Fa Bene in Barriera di Milano, one of the historical working-class neighbourhoods in Turin, the two authors bring together their individual experiences as researchers and volunteers. They analyse how context-specific interactions, local actors and their ways of doing things, give specific meanings and taste to the original project’s recipe and its social objectives, namely support to families in need through donations as well as community-based entertainment and capacity building. By describing the processes of food donation and collection at the marketplace and, secondly, the decision-making moments around the preparation of food boxes for the project’s beneficiaries at the Casa del Quartiere (neighbourhood community centre), the article sheds light onto the different aspects that make such boxes distinctive. Among others, management of fresh food, with its own powerful sensorial attributes, familiarity and uncertainty at the market and diverse food preferences are special ingredients in this sense. The paper is also an invitation to reflect on current developments within the social sector characterised by the continuous downsizing of the welfare state and a key role of associations. In the context of Turin, food assistance is a key component of the work of the third sector, rendering its access subject to volunteer work, improvisation, and sadly putting it at risk in times of emergency.