Food poverty
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Food poverty means that an individual or household isn’t able to obtain healthy, nutritious food, or can’t access the food they would like to eat. Despite increasing choice and affordability of food in the UK, many people eat what they can afford, not what they want.
This often results in people eating poor diets, which can lead to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer, as well as inadequate levels of many vitamins and minerals. Obesity is now as much a sign of poverty in the rich countries, as hunger is in poor countries.
Food poverty and economic poverty are linked. Rent, tax and debts are fixed costs; food is the ‘flexible’ budget item, and families and individuals pay the price.
Poor children suffer from lower nutrient intake, bad dietary patterns, hunger, low fruit and vegetable consumption and problems accessing food in school holidays.
A 2014 report by Oxfam UK, The Trussell Trust and Church Action on Poverty revealed that over 20 million meals were provided in 2013 to ...
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