Feature

On our own doorstep

Before British politicians attend the World Food Summit in Rome later this year they must respond to the food insecurity of many of their own citizens, says Jacqui Webster

There are an estimated 13.5 million people on a low income in Britain and evidence is growing to support the view that these people have more difficulty obtaining a balanced and varied diet than their better off counterparts. As a result, poor people have increased chances of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and some cancers.

In recognition of this evidence, the government set up a low income project team as part of the Health of the Nation’s nutrition task force, and in April this year the team published its final report which made recommendations for a co-ordinated national approach to food and low income, including local food partnerships and a national network and database of contacts.

The National Food Alliance supports these recommendations, particularly the need for a national network and database, which is in line with NFA work since January this year. But the project team was barred by the government from discussing the adequacy of benefit levels and addressing unemployment and, as a result, the NFA is concerned that the team’s recommendations do not go far enough.

It is not alone in this view. The National Consumer Council believes that consumers living on benefits are being denied access to healthy food simply because they do not have enough money. A joint study by the Maternity Alliance and NCH Action for Children revealed that young pregnant women on benefits need to spend as much as 65 per cent of their income on food to achieve the sort of diet recommended by most ante-natal clinics.

Unlike other countries, such as Sweden and Norway, the UK does not use budgeting standards and studies have revealed that current benefit rates cover as little as 68 per cent of the nutritional needs of children. The NCC urges the government to undertake budget studies to show what standard of living can be attained from current benefit levels, and the range of food choices that they permit. Only in this way, it argues, can the government set benefit levels which meet people’s needs.

The need to link employment to food and to good health is also fundamental. The Strathclyde Poverty Alliance, funded by Oxfam and The Network Foundation, has recently launched a ‘foodworks enquiry’ which aims, over the next 12 months, to find long-term ways to improve the supply of affordable, good quality food to low income households.

It is vital that the government both acknowledges the validity of such projects and supports them financially. Food poverty is increasing in the UK and will not disappear without a radical re-evaluation of food policy at international, national and community levels. This year there is a perfect opportunity. The world’s political leaders are due to gather in Rome in November for a World Food Summit and each nation will be asked to ‘commit to building a world without chronic food insecurity’. While this clearly has implications for Britain’s trade and aid policies, the government seems to be planning, in Rome, to ignore the food insecurity on its own doorstep.

It is not the first time that politicians have turned their backs on claims of poverty in Britain. When Oxfam first extended its work to the UK last year, the Labour MP David Blunkett said that Oxfam should focus on ‘those in desperate poverty in the developing world’ and not on people in the UK. But Oxfam hopes to share with organisations here ‘the learning, skills and experience gained elsewhere in the world’.

And there is a lot to be learned about tackling food poverty from other countries. In 1988, when Ecuador’s economy was in crisis, the Ecuadorian Centre for the Promotion and Action of Women decided something had to be done. With the support of other women’s groups, it opened communal shops in poor communities. The aims were to:

• ensure that products were weighed and priced correctly, and were of an acceptable quality;
• regulate prices;
• inform consumers through nutrition campaigns and protect them by banning substandard products;
• provide income support to women by offering discounts in exchange for their work as store attendants or treasurers.

The NFA has details of over 100 similar projects currently operating in the UK. These include not only community shops, but also community cafes, food co-operatives, lunch clubs for adults, voucher schemes for homeless people, and many more. Each project tries to address some of the problems faced by people on a low income in achieving a healthy and balanced diet.

NFA members have long been concerned about the effect of poverty on diet and the access low income groups have to healthy, affordable food. In December 1994, with funding from the Department of Health, the NFA published a pack called Food and Low Income: a practical guide for advisors and supporters working with families and young people on low incomes.

As well as providing information on diet, health, and food-related benefits, the pack provides guidance on setting up a low income food project, including statutory and voluntary sources of help, and contacts for over 70 projects.

Based on the success of this pack, and with the support of the Health Education Authority, the NFA held regional conferences in London, Birmingham and Newcastle during March 1995. The aim was to provide those working with low income groups with a forum through which they could:

• consider how the food and low income pack could be incorporated into their work;
• suggest ideas for future packs or areas for investigation;
• encourage development of a network of professionals tackling food and poverty issues.

At the end of 1995, with money from continued sales of the pack, from the conferences’ report and a grant from the National Lotteries Charities Board, the food and low income project has moved into its third phase. The NFA is now developing a Food Poverty Network to give those working in the field what they say they need:

• a regular newsletter;
• a comprehensive database of contacts containing a wealth of detail on food poverty projects;
• more regional conferences;
• an in-depth guide to project development.

The network is consistent with the recommendations made by the government’s low income project team report, but it is hardly enough to alleviate the problems faced by those on a low income. This extract from a recent letter to the NFA from a single mother in Leeds demonstrates the problems many face in trying to achieve a balanced diet:

‘I am a single parent whose oldest child has left home making a large drop in our family income. I still have two children at home and I consider that I am trying hard to feed us and look after our family budget. I have gone onto economy 7 because my cooker is electric and I do my cooking and baking as well as laundry, vacuum cleaning and ironing before peak time electric. We don’t use much expensive electric because we don’t have many electrical applications. We don’t have a TV or a clothes drier and we don’t use the central heating. I go out while the children are at school so as not to use the gas fire, and I don’t listen to the radio or use electric things to make myself beautiful like I used to do when I was married. I have stopped buying meat, fish and cheese because they are expensive and I eat a lot of 5p beans in tins... I shop at Netto and Quicksave for cheap basic foods, eg milk, eggs, baked beans, pasta, tinned tomatoes, flour, sugar, oil and peanuts. I get cauliflower stalks free from grocery stores that trim the cauliflower... I look out for bargains, bananas were cheap recently... but I find I need to eat more because I get hungry and I’ve gone from 8 stone 3oz to 7 stone 3oz... I also got a sack of wheat, which is animal food really, but I pick it over for rubbish and grind it to make flour — very time consuming but it works out at half the price of Morrisons... ‘

In the absence of more money it is difficult to see what else this woman is supposed to do to feed herself and her family a healthy diet.

For more information about the NFA’s Food Poverty Network or to order a copy of the Food and Low Income pack (£9.95), please contact Becki Fancini at the National Food Alliance on 0171-628 2442.