The Journal

Adults go hungry to feed their children – survey

- CATHERINE FURZE

SPIRALLING price rises have led to more than two million adults skipping food for a whole day because they can’t afford to eat, a survey has revealed.

And a North East food charity has revealed families are increasing­ly asking for food which does not need to be cooked due to rising energy costs.

The shocking figures, released by the Food Foundation think tank, also revealed millions more – including 2.6 million children – are having smaller meals than usual, are regularly skipping meals altogether or do not eat when they are hungry.

There has been a 57% jump in the proportion of households cutting back on food or skipping meals over the first three months of this year, with one in seven adults (7.3 million) estimated to be food-insecure.

Food insecurity, also sometimes known as food poverty, is defined by the Food Foundation as being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

Juliet Saunders of Blaydon-based Feeding Families said since the beginning of the year requests for food which does not need to be cooked have risen by about 50% and most of the organisati­ons her charity worked with and local food banks telling the same story.

SPIRALLING price rises have led to more than two million adults skipping food for a whole day because they can’t afford to eat, a new survey has revealed.

The shocking figures, released by the Food Foundation think tank, also revealed that millions more – including 2.6 million children – now have smaller meals than usual, regularly skip meals altogether or do not eat when they are hungry.

And there has been a 57% jump in the proportion of households cutting back on food or skipping meals over the first three months of this year, with one in seven adults (7.3 million) estimated to be food-insecure, up from 4.7 million in January.

Food insecurity, which is also sometimes known as food poverty, is defined by the Food Foundation as being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

The numbers just released return food insecurity to levels last seen at the start of the first national lockdown in 2020 although food scarcity in those early months was driven by panic buying and supply problems, not lack of affordabil­ity.

“The extremely rapid rise in food insecurity since January points to a catastroph­ic situation for families,” the Food Foundation’s executive director Anna Taylor.

“Food insecurity puts families under extreme mental stress and forces people to survive on the cheapest calories, which lead to health problems.”

Local food charities have reported that energy costs are so prohibitiv­e for some people they are asking for emergency food parcels that do not need to be cooked, as they can’t afford the energy to do so or have run out of credit on their prepay meter.

Juliet Saunders, of Blaydon-based Feeding Families, said that since the beginning of the year, requests for food that does not need to be cooked have risen by about 50%, and most of the organisati­ons her charity worked with, and local food banks, are telling the same story.

Feeding Families supports local charities and schools, not families directly, and said that people are feeling the squeeze on finances from several directions, including utilities and also the increase in food prices.

“Although we aren’t a food bank and don’t work directly with individual­s, there is a marked increase in people approachin­g us. Last year at this time it was maybe a couple of people a month but now it can be several people a day,” she said.

“Also we have seen a massive decline in donations (again substantia­ted by food banks) as previous donors are less able to give. We are planning for 100% increase in our regular deliveries by the end of the year but it’s not clear where our supply will come from, although we are working hard on it.”

And Carole Rowland, of Newcastle’s West End Food Bank, which is Britain’s largest and holds 10 sessions every week throughout the city, said her organisati­on is seeing an increase in families unable to cope with the cost of energy, and are taking desperate measures to keep their bills down.

“I know of elderly people who are going to bed at 7pm just to keep warm and layering up during the day instead of putting the heating on,” she said.

“Some people’s fuel bills have tripled – anyone would struggle to cope with that, regardless of their income.

“We are seeing a marked increase in people who want food they can cook in a pan on the hob rather than switch the oven on, and some people just want cold food that requires no heating or cooking at all.”

The rise in food insecurity reflects soaring inflation as energy, food and petrol prices hit record levels with the Food Foundation warning it will worsen in the coming months.

The think tank said it was so shocked by its initial findings that it reran the survey on a wider basis, only to get the same results.

Anna Taylor, the foundation’s executive director, said: “The extremely rapid rise in food insecurity since January points to a catastroph­ic situation for families.

“Food insecurity puts families under extreme mental stress and forces people to survive on the cheapest calories, leading to health problems.”

The UK’s largest food bank network, The Trussell Trust, which supports the West End Food Bank, said it had distribute­d 2.1 million food parcels last year in the UK.

“People are telling us they’re skipping meals so they can feed their children. That they are turning off essential appliances so they can afford internet access for their kids to do their homework,” said Emma Revie, chief executive of the Trussell Trust.

Calling for benefits to be increased by at least seven per cent to keep pace with the cost of living increases, she said: “How can this be right in a society like ours? And yet food banks in our network tell us this is only set to get worse as their communitie­s are pushed deeper into financial hardship.”

I know of elderly people who are going to bed at 7pm just to keep warm and layering up during the day instead of putting the heating on Carole Rowland

 ?? ?? Carole Rowland of the Newcastle West End Food Bank
Carole Rowland of the Newcastle West End Food Bank
 ?? ?? > People queue to use the food bank
> People queue to use the food bank

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