Food, Medicine, or Heat? How Firewood Banks Leverage Local Natural Resources to Support Fuel-Poor Households

Households in natural resource-dependent areas of the United States are particularly vulnerable to fuel poverty. Wood banks provide no-cost, local firewood to fuel-poor households.Little is known about key details such aswhere they are operating,who isaccessing them,and why.To assess the mechanisms...

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Published inJournal of rural and community development Vol. 17; no. 3; p. 143
Main Authors Griffith, Eric E, Elvin Dampier, Jason Ernest, Hart, Clarisse M, Harper, Richard W
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Brandon Brandon University 01.01.2022
Subjects
Banking
Counties
Food
Fuels
Households
Natural resources
Poverty
Qualitative research
Wood
United States > US
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Summary:Households in natural resource-dependent areas of the United States are particularly vulnerable to fuel poverty. Wood banks provide no-cost, local firewood to fuel-poor households.Little is known about key details such aswhere they are operating,who isaccessing them,and why.To assess the mechanisms by whichwood banks may helpalleviate fuel poverty,we located 82 wood banksand identified that 20.7% of them operated in counties with high rates of poverty and firewood heating use, despite only 11.6% of counties satisfying those criteria, nationwide. Qualitative analysis of interviews with representatives from 21 wood banks identified four explanations for householdfuel poverty preceding accessing a wood bank: economic poverty, health-related challenges, old age, and emergency need. In manycases, at least two of four vulnerabilities overlapped, indicating that a convergence of factors explainsthe establishment and use of a wood bank.
ISSN:1712-8277