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.

Consumers reliant on supermarkets’ budget ranges bore the brunt of food price inflation in the run-up to Christmas, with increases far outstripping those for luxury own-label and premium brands, according to a survey.
The price of budget items rose 20.3% on average in December, compared with the same month a year before,

Hw long have you been in this situation @CeilingGranny ? Have you no storecupboard at all?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/nhs-steve-jones-government-unison-scotland-b2321920.html

Food banks in hospitals have become the norm, with senior staff including ward sisters relying on them for supplies of essentials such as milk and bread, according to nurses.

Christ on a bike.

I am sorry but that is a load of rubbish. The average ward sister earns around £38k. At the very least can we not agree that someone earning that much should be able to manage??

She is missing 2 meals today because she can't afford them and you wonder if she has some garam masala in her cupboard?

I don't have £8 to spend on butter. I've bought the cheapest possible food I can find. I've stretched it as far as I possibly can, but it's run out.

So please, explain how I deserve to starve again. I'm all fucking ears.

Would you care to elaborate please? don't get the outrage

You clearly have never lived in poverty. Even when living on a bus route the fares aren't cheap. You spend a lot of calories walking and cycling everywhere as a result, which means you need more food...

If you can't see it yourself then no, I shan't.

Tbh , it's not outrage. It's fury.

A load of rubbish? You don't bellieve it is happening?

Mortgage of £1200, child care or £1100 then what do they do? Debt for the rest of the bills and food. Washing machine packs up, that's another few hundred pounds. Boiler breaks, another £3k. More debt.

£38k as a single household income is nothing.

No I didn't? I asked if she had anything in her cupboard. I never mentioned garam marsala. I was thinking more along the lines of baked beans (28p) flour, that sort of thing.
Awaits outraged posters shouting that you can't make anyting with baked beans and flour ...

Prices have always gone up before Christmas. I've noticed in the run up to Christmas there will always be offers on things like Pringles, tubs of sweets biscuits etc and then in the week or two before the 25th all those offers will disappear because the supermarkets know that most people won't buy in advance and because it's Christmas people will be prepared to spend more.

So just fury then. Nothing really to add.

Food inflation is 5% this month, that means prices are going up!

Why are you moaning about Lurpak then if you don't even buy it? When you don't even have to buy it. Nobody does.

The threshold for free childcare is £100,000pa so anyone on £38k should not be paying £1,100 a month for childcare.
I mean how far do people's sympathies go really? If we are all hand-wringing about someone on nearly £40k a year, surely that makes a mockery of poverty?

You are missing the point there 2dogs.

In fact I didn't paste the bit that said chocolate had gone up the least.

Is there any point at which people on this thread might believe the actual statisticians?

We have the CEO of Kelloggs telling people to eat his cereal for dinner; we have rising number so of children in destitution; we have essential items locked in cabinets so shoppers have to humiliate themselves asking for them. We have survey after survey saying supermarkets are inflating the prices of their budget range essentials. We have food banks springing up everywhere.

What MORE evidence do people want?

I am not arguing food prices are going up.
I am arguing that, in absolute financial terms, no one has so little income they cannot afford to buy any food whatsoever.

That's why it's so awful. Because as a home owner on £38k you don't get UC support. Why is it so hard to imagine a mid level earner with a one income household would be struggling hugely at the moment? Why are you so resentful of this fact?

So do a shop once a week then. Excuses, excuses.

@Frequency I don't know if this helps at all but
Aldi pads are scented, but asda own brand are decent and cope with my heavy periods

Aldi volume conditioner is really nice
If you are near a Superdrug, their fruity shampoo and conditioner range is currently half price at 50p for a huge bottle (and their pads are on offer too

https://www.superdrug.com/hair/shampoo/everyday-shampoo/fruity-cherry-almond-shampoo-535ml/p/778173?gclsrc=aw.ds&gclsrc=aw.ds&gadsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAADp4mz9WC7oomJ7GL5g9gBXb3HjuF&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6NebbJ3OhAMVsZJQBh13wf3EAQYASABEgLNyPDDBwE

If dog will eat this, it's gluten and wheat free (tins usually cheaper and probably cheaper elsewhere but link was handy)

www.iceland.co.uk/p/butchers-chunks-in-jelly-recipes-wet-dog-food-tins-12-x-400g/78311.html

In 2022/23, the Trussell Trust, a charity and network of foodbanks, supplied the highest recorded number of three-day emergency food parcels.

According to the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Households Below Average Income survey, in 2021/22, 4.7 million people (7%) in the UK were in food insecure households. Among the 11.0 million people found to be in relative poverty, 15% were in food insecure households, including 21% of children. People in relative poverty live in a household with income less than 60% of the contemporary median income.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9209/#:~:text=In%202021%2F22%2C%202.1%20million,three%2Dday%20emergency%20food%20parcels.