Spectre of child malnutrition looms here, warns charity

Unless immediate action is taken, increasing numbers of children in the UK will be at risk of malnutrition into the next century, the charity Save the Children has warned.

Save the Children is well known for its work with children in developing countries. But it says that in some areas of the UK low income families are unable to give their children the food they need, because of poverty.

‘It is shocking to find that we are facing the spectre of the risk of child malnutrition right here on our own doorstep,’ said Mike Aaronson, director-general of Save the Children.

‘The face of malnutrition in the UK may be different and less visible than in poorer countries, but its causes are strikingly similar.’

Save the Children researchers have interviewed women living in London, Glasgow, Coventry, Sunderland and Belfast who have incomes that, despite their best efforts, do not stretch to affording a balanced diet for their children.

One women, from Pennywell in Sunderland, said: ‘I can hardly manage in the holidays. With the extra expense on food, it’s almost impossible.’

Another mother, from Rosemount in Glasgow, told of how she went without food herself in order to feed her children.

‘By the end of the week I have to tap (borrow). I think everyone has to do that. A few years ago I had to miss meals. I would just have toast as long as the wee ‘uns were fed.’

Save the Children found that families on low incomes also had very restricted access to low-cost food; could not afford to buy fruit or vegetables regularly; had to spend a high proportion of their disposable income on transport; and could not economise by shopping at big out-of-town stores.

Save the Children is urging the government to undertake a full review of social security benefits, and to determine the levels required to afford a healthy diet. It wants to see top-up payments in school holidays to cover the cost of extra meals for families with children.

It also wants a national strategy on food and low income to be implemented. A strategy was developed in 1996 by the Department of Health’s food and low income project team.

James Munro