Experts have pointed to the deep reliance on food banks and an ‘inadequate welfare system’ in the UK as they warn against allowing hunger to become the new normal for millions of people. Their warning and recommendations for creating fairer access to healthy, affordable food are published today in a new report from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).
It highlights that large numbers of people in countries such as Brazil, South Africa, and the UK are now routinely unable to meet their basic food needs. From fewer than a hundred food banks in the UK a decade ago, numbers have grown to over 2,000 in 2021, with 9.7 million people experiencing food poverty in September 2022. The report identifies how hunger is widely seen as being the fault of the individual, rather than a systemic issue.
Professor Melissa Leach, Director of the Institute of Development Studies, said:
“It is concerning that 14% of the UK population suffer from food poverty. Access to food in the UK is very inequitable, and we believe that more attention needs to be placed on overcoming these inequities than simply focusing on increased food production through ever more industrialised agriculture.
“Instead, we urgently need to improve access to affordable nutritious food. Over the last decade, charities have stepped in to plug the gaps left by the state but this is not an acceptable or sustainable way to address the growing prevalence of hunger.”
Nicholas Nisbett, Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, said:
“To reduce hunger levels in the UK we need a particular focus on the vulnerable communities in the UK – including children, people living in poverty, racial or ethnic minorities or people in impoverished areas.
“The UK government has lacked ambition in its thinking and approach to improving food security and nutrition, with last year’s Food Strategy for England a particular missed opportunity to tackle inequities.”
The IDS report ‘Pathways to Equitable Food Systems’ identifies work in Brighton as demonstrating how inequities over access to nutritious food can be tackled. In the city, action from community groups combined with work from the local government has improved access to healthy food and supported reductions in childhood obesity.
This example forms part of one of the key recommendations in the report, which is to place more emphasis on bringing together community- and government- level actions which can specifically target inequity.
