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Combat Poverty

Written by Helen Johnston

Tuesday, 30 November 2004

Access and price are two of the main causes for food poverty in Ireland

Having had considerable experience of dealing with the problem of food poverty, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Crosscare and we at Combat Poverty produced a recent report entitled "Food Poverty and Policy", which examines the problem in Ireland, and makes recommendations on how to tackle it.

The report has shown that access to good quality, reasonably priced food needed to ensure a nutritious and healthy diet is a real problem in Ireland.

Food poverty is essentially the inability to have an adequate and nutritious diet due principally to cost and access problems. The problem is getting bigger- during 2002; the quantity of food products distributed by the 12 member countries of the European Federation of Food Banks reached 149,659 tons (worth ?322m), and was distributed to almost 2.6m people. In 2003, this rose to 193,000 tons (worth ?354m), distributed to 3m people.

The EFFB estimates that approximately 34 million people in Europe suffer food poverty – up to 40 million when the new member states are included.

The people most likely to suffer food poverty are those on low incomes. The report found that they:

Eat less well and have inferior food intake and lower compliance with recommended dietary and nutrient intake.
Spend relatively more money on food, but not on healthy options.
Have difficulties accessing an adequate variety of good quality, affordable foodstuffs.
Know what is healthy, but are restricted by finance.
Are restricted socially and culturally in their food consumption patterns due to financial constraints.

Some of the main factors behind food poverty are based simply on not having enough to live on. Those most at risk from this problem are low-income households, such as the unemployed, older people, the homeless, Travellers and refugees/asylum seekers. Other factors behind food poverty include access to shops in that large multiples control what gets into shops and where the shops are. Smaller local shops are often significantly more expensive than larger stores. This makes transport also a problem. The people most at risk of food poverty have very limited choices of transport to reach larger stores. Given financial constraints, sometimes having the appropriate information, i.e. knowing the best options for nutritious food on a budget, can be a major difficulty. Finally, advertising – particularly that directed at children- can be a problem. The recent initiative to limit such advertising in Ireland is to be welcomed in this context.

Food insecurity and inadequate diet are central to the experience of poverty. Yet, these issues have been largely neglected in policy debates about poverty in Ireland. At the same time, the growing policy concern over food safety and healthy eating has not reflected the specific issues facing low-income groups.

At a policy level, food poverty per se has not received much attention and explicit efforts to alleviate the adverse implications of food poverty are sparse. Government bodies are not directed explicitly towards addressing food poverty, but do recognise that income adequacy, provision of school meals, awareness of healthy eating and better transport contribute to preventing and alleviating food poverty. No specific action is taking place concerned with pricing structures and retail provision directed at low-income groups.

A greater awareness of food poverty exists among those working directly with socially disadvantaged groups or involved in the direct provision of food. Many of the initiatives targeting food poverty focus on facilitating the provision of healthy, nutritious food to vulnerable people through food banks and food centres, and at the same time seek to address the social dimension of food and relieve food-related exclusion.

Increasing the capacity of people to choose healthier options is being carried out through breakfast clubs and community programmes that aim to develop cooking, budgetary and home management skills. Lack of an adequate income however, is central to food poverty. Generally practical initiatives to address food poverty have developed in isolation from national policy.

Therefore, it is vital that a comprehensive approach to tackle this problem is put in place. This coordinated approach is critical to effect change in regard to food poverty. This should be based on a food and nutrition policy, which has as its main objective equal access to food for all members in society. This should be located within the framework of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy. Other elements that are required to help tackle the problem include:

Action is required to identify and address gaps in dietary knowledge and skills. The provision of accessible and culturally appropriate dietary information is critical to help maximise people’s capacity to choose healthy foodstuffs.
Support for community initiatives, which increase access to food is strongly recommended. On its own, community action cannot be expected to overcome structural problems in accessing good quality affordable food, but should be part of an inclusive approach addressing both poverty and the wider food system. Specifically, support should be provided for local food partnerships as a means to identify and respond to local needs.
Direct food provision has a role in addressing food poverty. There is potential for the corporate sector to take a more active role in this regard in co-operation with local community and voluntary groups. The development and monitoring of direct provision of food needs to be located within a strategic framework addressing food poverty and social inequality in diet and should not be regarded as an institutional remedy.
The gathering of evidence specifically relating to food poverty requires on-going research. This will help effective policy making in the future.

The existence and extent of Food Poverty in Ireland makes it essential that a strategic and coherent approach is taken to tackle the problem as soon as possible.

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