Abstract

With the pandemic emergency, the Italian government adopted a national program to cope with food insecurity at the local level. The article analyzes the policy implementation as an opportunity for change for local administrations and has three purposes: a) to highlight the main problems and opportunities for implementing the food security policy in turbulent times; b) to analyze in a comparative key the management of food aid in 99 Italian capital cities with a focus on limits and potential in designing the take-up of food vouchers; c) to pinpoint if and if so, how the food security policy has favored collaborative governance methods. The evidence shows the centrality of the take-up design of ‘shopping vouchers’ in encouraging change in governance through greater integration and collaboration among municipal, public, and private entities