Alan Connolly is a Research Assistant at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork, working on mySupport Study. He is also a final year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University. In his thesis he argues that an individualistic understanding of poverty characterises the UK government’s food poverty policy, linking this both to the growth in food bank numbers, and the stigma associated with food bank use. His main research interests are economic inequality and discrimination, particularly with regard to poverty, as well as health and social policy.