One million adults reported that they or someone in their household had to go a whole day without eating in the past month because they couldn’t afford or access food. The Food Foundation suggests this is due to soaring energy and food prices, along with the removal of the £20 uplift to universal credit.
There is also a ‘significant rise’ in the number of households with children experiencing food insecurity in the past month, increasing from 11% in July 2021 to 12.1% in 2022. This represents a total of 2 million children who live in households that do not have access to a healthy and affordable diet which puts them at high risk of suffering from diet related diseases, poor child growth and shorter lives.
Around 4.9% of parents with children aged eight to 16 in the household who are not registered for Free School Meals are worried their children will have to go without lunch some days because they cannot afford school meals/packed lunched compared with 1.1% in August 2020.
The Food Foundation are calling on Government to make tackling food insecurity central to the levelling up agenda. As part of the levelling up agenda the Government says it wants to reduce regional disparities in the country.
Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, said: “The Levelling Up white paper commits to boosting productivity, pay and job security but does not commit to reducing food insecurity rates. Food insecurity is a vital measure if we are to monitor severe material deprivation.
“It contributes not only to health inequalities and life expectancy, but also social wellbeing. If the Government wants to really get to grips with the issue, a comprehensive approach to levelling-up must tackle food insecurity head on.”
The data identifies groups who are most at risk of food poverty as food prices rise. People limited a lot by disabilities are five times more at risk than people not limited by disabilities (31.1% vs 6.4%).