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.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/schools-chief-children-packed-dinner/#:~:text=The%20founder%20of%20Carpetright%20claimed,appears%20to%20be%20UK%2Dwide.

This country needs a revolution now more than ever.

It isn't about peanut butter and smoked salmon. It's about people who refuse to acknowledge that there is real poverty in the UK. It's so much easier and more comfortable to believe people who can't afford the basics are just lazy and ill educated. Put that conscience in the box marked 'I'm all right, Jack' and get on with life. It's sad to see so many callous people. No wonder we have the government we have.

I honestly don't know is the answer as I wouldn't be so arrogant to presume I did. Besides, I'd be a hypocrite as I certainly don't make the best choices all the time.

You don't "know the answer". You assume you know it though, based on your own prejudices. You probably think you're a nice person as well.

The flaw with that is it has been shown people who eat an exclusively "healthy" diet end up with disordered eating and disease relating to malnourishment.

Equally salad is expensive. To have a salad bar big enough to fuel a school of 1500 students plus staff will be prohibitively expensive!

People are also allowed to have agency over making their own decisions around managing their own health and wellbeing and a prescriptive salad bar won't account for cultural or allergy concerns.

Who would pay for it?

Revolution to what outcome though?

This is the difference between what households spent in 1957 compared to 2022.

It is based on the percentage of weekly wages:

1957
Housing/fuel. 15%
Food. 33%
Alcohol/tobacco 9%
Clothing 10%
Household goods 8.5%
Transport 8.5%
Personal goods 7%
Services 9%

2022
Housing/fuel 17%
Food 12%
Alcohol/tobacco 2%
Clothing 3%
Household goods 7%
Transport 14%
Recreation and culture 11%
Restaurants/hotels 7%
Communication 4%
Health 2%
Other expenditure 14% (not sure what this includes but it's a big expense)
Misc. goods and services 8%
Education 1%

We spend less on food now than people did in the 1950s, transport is a big expense now but there would have been less cars then and most people worked locally and walked.

So do you mean proper funding for School food as at the moment the school's catering services are not able to offer healthy meals and they have put the price up for food that has limited nutritional value. DD is in year 8 and rarely buys any food from the canteen as she tells me it is too unhealthy. When my DS who is now at 6th form college started at DD's secondary school 6 years ago they had a baguette cart and there were choices of fairly healthy fillings with wholemeal bread choices, that has gone now. At my son's 6th form college it is cheaper to go to the Fish and chip shop than the school canteen, they have a student special of £3 for sausage and chips, obviously I advise him to not have this regularly and he doesn't but why is state 6th college food so expensive.

Does that pertain to households in poverty? Or just average households?

Other would probably be childcare

If you have to ask then it's probably not for you.

Can’t you answer rather than be cryptic?

No thank you. I saw what you just posted about poor people on here.

What food poverty are we talking about it because there seem to be different views of what is maint by it here.

Are we talking about families who can't afford regular healthy and diverse meals? Families who can't ever afford any luxuries? Or families who have to skip meals and bring left with hunger as a result? Because these are all very different.

The above statistics are interesting. We are clearly spending much less on food then before, but more on recreation, culture, hotels and restaurants.

So the above clearly identify that we are not starving if we are able to spend more on non essentials. Of course this is average though so meaningless when it comes to the question of food poverty.

At least they are trying to come out with solutions to help even if you don't agree.

Now I assume you have the same compassion for children around the world that after all are no different to our children.
So what are you doing to reduce the kids in Africa slaving away for the Lithium in your phone battery, Cobalt for your petrol for your car. 12 year olds sleeping and working in sweatshops making your cheap Primark type clothes.

Have you stopped buying or using in protest since you are full of compassion for the kids

Why are pps shunning every suggestion put to them instead of addressing the point made by myself and several others: There is something wrong if someone can't afford a basic food budget to last the week.
We have heard from people - myself included - who have lived on a very tight budget and managed, so why are we hearing excuse after excuse as to why people are not managing?
If a household has no money for gas, electricity, housing, bus fare or food (as is evidenced by some on this thread) where exactly is the money going?
There is another thread running on resiliance and I think there is some crossover with the attitudes shown on here to the reason people are lacking resilience now. Instread of asking someone where the money has gone, we are hearing a million justifications which absolve the person spending the money from any responsibility or agency.
I am also curious to know how much posters on here earn if they think that a nurse (min just under £28k) or a teacher (min £30k) are so hard up they can't afford to eat?!

Ok so you want to join in mass outrage but not suggest any solution or end model that could rectify the problem. Right.

I don't know, I just thought it was an interesting comparison that as the world has changed so have our spending habits and what we spend our money on. Obviously there are people in real poverty, always has and always will be, because it doesn't matter how much money is given to some families, there will always be feckless people and their children will suffer. Not sure how that could be solved.

There was a person on here a few months ago who was complaining about not having enough money left to buy food but when she listed her outgoings she was paying £60 a month for dog insurance. I wouldn't say that person was in poverty.

It's undeniable that food prices have risen. Even the most militant Tory here who believes that the only possible way someone could be poor is through their own laziness and stupidity must acknowledge that.

So at what point are those people going to accept that food has become unaffordable for some on a low income? If it's not when it's possible to blow the best part of a tenner on a tub of butter, WHEN is it enough to admit there's a problem?

I think they just enjoy the feeling of joining in mass outrage, then patting themselves on the back for ‘standing up for the poor’. They know we make valid points deep down so don’t actually want to discuss remedies, just join in chants of ‘revolution, now’ and whatever.

Who is paying £10 for butter? I just did my online food shop and butter was £1.60.

Respectfully you have interpreted the data like that but transport for work is a massive expense, there's no choice people can't walk along train tracks for 40 miles to save on the commute for work or get to work on time by walking to work if a bus allows them to drop off their children rather than having to pay for child care, breakfast club or running a car to get work outside of your area as public transport is so woeful in your area

Well there's no reason for a revolution if you don't know what outcome you're seeking

I agree with this.