15% of households skipped meals last month because they couldn't afford to buy enough food

[cakeorwine]

‘Health emergency’: 15% of UK households went hungry last month, data shows | Food poverty | The Guardian

"Millions of people – including one in five families with children – have gone hungry or skipped meals in recent weeks because they could not regularly afford to buy groceries, according to new food insecurity data.
According to the Food Foundation tracker, 15% of UK households – equivalent to approximately 8 million adults and 3 million children – experienced food insecurity in January, as high food prices continued to hit the pockets of low-income families.

Expects warned the persistence of high levels of food insecurity among low-income families was a “health emergency” that would drive the prevalence of conditions linked to poor nutrition, such as malnutrition and rickets.
Nearly two-thirds (60%) of food-insecure households reported buying less fruit and 44% bought fewer vegetables as they struggled with the ongoing cost of living crisis. By contrast, just 11% of food-secure households bought less fruit and 6% purchased fewer vegetables"

This is awful data - and something that should be being talked about. Being in work does not protect you from this. Life is just very expensive for some people - and costs are still going up.

Oh, just saying that, of the two, the larger portion would be more accurate when you need it for a hungry person.

Kalevala
I can't find a 500g packet but the 1kg says 75g serve equals 235g cooked

235g cooked - doesn't mean portion size or serving.

1Kg pack says -
Number of uses approx. 13 Servings

Which matches up with a 75g serve, or triple when cooked.

Well, for £2 you can buy (in my local Asda:
6 apples
Or
8 packs of super noodles

a pack of oven chips and 50p change
Or
7 stalks of asparagus

8 satsumas
Or
8 sausage rolls

a bag of spinach and a grapefruit
Or
12 basic sausages

porridge oats and 1l of milk
or
a punnet of grapes

4 packets of choc chip cookies
Or
5 small bananas

If you’ve a family of 4 to feed, what’s most filling? And what’s most calorific?

I work in a high school which doesn't have any facilities for food tech so cookery lessons at all, I find it really sad

With rice it will depend on what proportion of the meal it is. Dds and I shared a pouch between 3 of us yesterday... but we also had carrots, peas, sweetcorn and chicken. If it had just been the rice and chicken, or just one veg... we would have needed more rice.

People who are in work poverty, for example, don't have the time, energy or money to scratch cook healthy meals. They use UPF crap which are a disaster.

Causing obesity and serious health problems.

Disabled people, for example might struggle to chop and peel veg and therfore use junk food as it is easy to cook and prep and less dishes to wash.

What tasteless slop? Nobody has a right to eat like a king at every meal. Our meat consumption is way too high as it is and is causing a massive carbon footprint as well as health problems. Literally nobody is going to die or become unwell or deficient through eating lentil soup, scrambled eggs, tins of salmon and jacket potatoes. All cheap meals you can make for £1 a head for a family of 4.

Way to completely miss the point.

What is the point? What slop is being referred to?

(Obviously it could also buy an onion and a bag of lentils, but unless you have spices and oil already that’s not much of a dahl… and those add at least £11 to the price now!)

Scrambled eggs £1 a head? How many eggs? £2 for 6 here, 3 eggs (180cal) isn’t much of a meal!

The point is that we're not talking about people becoming unwell on scrambled egg or lentil soup.

We're talking about how fucking depressing it is that there are families in the UK in 2024 who are stuck eating like that day in, day out for months on end and who are being called all sorts for daring to want a £1 pizza occasionally.

Yes, we do do only 60g dry per person not 75g but we have chilli bulked out with a lot of veg and beans with it.

• There were 6.1 million people on Universal Credit in July 2023
• Half of households on Universal Credit with a payment had children in May 2023

So 10% of our population is recognised by the government to live in poverty. Add workers only a few pounds above eligibility for benefits. Then add in a few pensioners who have been hit by rising rents and food costs and it's easy to get to 15% skipping the odd meal.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-statistics-29-april-2013-to-13-july-2023/universal-credit-29-april-2013-to-13-july-2023#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20people%20on,March%202021%2C%20during%20the%20pandemic.

Eggs - 6 for £1.30
Wholemeal bread for toast - 75p for loaf so about 30p for 4 people
Grated cheese - £1.99 for bag so would use about £1 worth
Bag of salad - £1
Salad dressing - £1

So that’s £4.60 for a family of 4, for scrambled eggs on toast with grated cheese and a side salad with dressing. Works out at £1.15 each(ish), only uses one pan and ready in less than 10 minutes.

Edit: all ingredients Tesco prices

People who aren't in food poverty explaining how to make 'cheap, filling foods' (that they'd not eat themselves), is one of my favourite things. Mmmm, microwaved jacket potato with beans every night, mmmm lentils cooked for ages with an onion. Tasty.

The funny thing is I eat these for my meals and I’m not actually skint. I just know eating red meat and high fat foods every night is not only expensive but really bad for you.

You eat those things because you can afford them.

Try buying those things when you have £3 to last you for a week's worth of food, along with any other essentials, and then come back and tell us about how simple it was to put three square meals on the table.

It really isn’t. You can go to any supermarket and get veg so cheap. Carrots, lettuce, cauliflower, all really cheap at my supermarket. People need to change their mindset and cook from scratch, instead of buying ready made stuff. It’s cheaper, and doesn’t necessarily take more time. I meal prep for three of us when ordering my shop online, so there’s no waste because I only buy what I need.

There's a huge difference between doing something through choice, and doing something when you have no other choice.

If you can't see that then, well, there's no helping you.

@Naptrappedmummy but it's choice isn't it?
I enjoy an omelette or cereal for tea or a jacket potato
But I can also choose to have cottage pie or pizza and very occasionally a takeaway
If you can only have the same stuff because that's all you can afford it becomes really depressing

So that's £4.60 for one meal. Where are the other two meals coming from? What do you do when there's 4 of you and your food budget for the whole week is £30? Nobody is saying you have to eat a high meat, high fat diet - but the fact of the matter is that fresh fruit and vegetables are expensive, spices are expensive, gas and electricity are expensive and alongside that, having to eat the same bland, plain meals 7 days a week is horrible. But not as horrible as thinking that's all people on low incomes deserve.