MAMDANI: Food Insecurity: The Managed Scarcity of the Settler State

Charity vs. the Right to Food

Widespread food insecurity and reliance on pantries and SNAP in a city of obscene wealth is not a failure of production but a success of the bifurcated state’s logic of managed scarcity. Mamdani’s analysis helps us see the food bank not as a benevolent institution but as part of the colonial administration of poverty, managing the “native’s” hunger without addressing the systemic economic violence that causes it. This charity model upholds the savior narrative and strips people of dignity, making sustenance a gift rather than a right. A Marxist critique identifies this as the alienation of people from the means of feeding themselves. A feminist perspective sees women standing in long lines to secure food for their families. The solution is to fight for food sovereignty–community-controlled food co-ops, urban agriculture on reclaimed land, and a guaranteed income–transforming food from a gift from the civilized to a fundamental right won through collective struggle and self-determination.