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.

Asda Essentials, 15 pack for £1.99. Pretty much guaranteed to being as close to battery farmed as it is legally possible to get away with.

It's funny isn't it that the reasons those on £100k and those on £20k are struggling are basically the same, the results are far, far different and the standard of living Vs the barely even surviving, but with those on £20k they've got too many iPhones and TV subscriptions, they can't be bothered to earn more and are feckless wasters and it's all their own fault, but on a £100k and struggling and it's all not fair and can't possibly be anything to do with their own choices, it's because of the feckless wasters on £20k getting their hard earned money in benefits - so poor people are responsible for being poor themselves as well as the people who earn 3x, 4x ,or 10x more than them struggling as well. And those £100k earners are far more likely to be the ones deciding what the £20k earners earn as well.

I've often thought that instead of giving individuals benefits when on a low income, there should be a minimum wage that doesn't need top ups from UC or tax credits and employers must pay this, if they then cannot afford to do so they claim the money, and the same parameters apply, getting millions in profit? Then you don't get the benefits, you have less profit and pay your staff yourself. Shareholders getting billions? They get less, you don't get the government top ups to pay a decent wage whilst others in the business are creaming off everything to make themselves even richer.
It means small businesses that genuinely would struggle can still keep going, but you've not got the government topping up the wages of huge companies turning massive profits and paying their staff a pittance doing the work to makes that profit in the first place.

I eat lentils almost every day. Hence my name. I have a lifetime of knowledge about cooking cheap Asian veggie food handed down to me by my mum. I can make perhaps over a 100 healthy £1 meals, which my family will eat, btw.

I have still noticed that my food bill has rocketed.

Important correction here. Thank you @dimllaishebiaith

For those looking for ideas - rolled oats for breakfast are very cheap. Add a splash of milk, yoghurt, honey and cinnamon. I've been eating it for years. High in fibre and filling.

Lovely. Now have a dietary restriction (gluten or dairy or sugar you choose).

It's one of those that's cheap if you have a store cupboard
For me it would be cheap as I have yoghurt, honey and cinnamon
For others it would be beyond their budget

I’m not fat, I’ve gone from a size 8 to a size 4 this year because I can’t afford food ffs. I weigh 47kg! And yes DH and I both work full time.

I've lost weight too, @depressedandpoor because I've got disordered eating arising from an auto-immune disease that the NHS apparently can't afford to treat properly.

People shouldn't be living like this in a developed country.

p.s. I'd love to send you a hamper. Your weight loss is worrying.

I set this challenge for you all. Budget and plan for the following:

A week's shopping for 1 adult 2 children and a toddler in "big shop" week. Also during this week Johnny needs new shoes, Tommy's 3rd hand pushchair has developed a tear in the fabric and Tomathan has been struck by the school bullies again who cut off a chunk of her hair, class photos are this week and she is in tears over how she's going to look in them.

It really is so bone-crushingly depressing to see people still carrying on with this "people in poverty just don't know how to x". If the narrative that people deserve poverty makes you feel comfortable, then you need to work on yourself. Most of us are one or two paychecks away from the same. Or an unexpected illness away.

Lentils, tinned tomatoes and garam masala are insanely cheap and can be cooked in 25 mins. Plus the hob is usually cheaper than the oven.”

25 minutes of energy is not insanely cheap.

It's cheaper than using the oven for a pizza, which was the post I was responding to.

These threads are always a big fight. There will be some truth in everyone's responses really.

A lot of fruit is shockingly expensive at some supermarkets. I'm not surprised people don't buy it if they are skint.

I imagine
some people will be poor at prioritising
some people will be poor at budgeting/maths
some people will be poor at cooking
Most will be just poor. (Financially poor and possibly time poor)

Because they were already on tight budgets and scrimping...and then fuel went up, food went up, other bills went up, housing costs went up...and there was no space to cut back.

Also the cheapest supermarkets are often on retail parks. What if your nearest supermarket is co-op? the cost of food in Aldi is largely irrelevant if you can't get there!

Can you not see how privileged you were that you had cooking facilities a freezer and a family that don't have sensory issues around food relating to autism or AFRID. I am thankful I can afford to buy the food my children will eat but cheese pasta rice and raw peppers are the only things on that list that some not all (as half won't eat cheese) will eat.

Food costs have definitely rocketed and they are unlikely to come down much. Just like utility costs. There will be people who have no disposable income left and are just supposed to 'find' the extra monies. This is not sustainable.

However, the problem with this article is that it is lacking detail, which can make it very difficult for people to appreciate the issues that others are facing.

it would be better to give people realistic budget friendly meals e.g.
Porridge with milk and honey.
Scrambled eggs on toast
Jacket potato with cheese and beans (or frozen veg if facilities are available)
An apple
Biscuits and a couple cups of tea/coffee

People are fat because they consume empty calories - food containing little or no nutrition. The body demands nutrition, makes the person feel hungry. So they eat more (crap) food, gets some energy but nowt else - apart from getting fatter. Rinse and repeat.

Many households and families dont have decent cooking facilities, many dont even have a proper home, look into how many families and persons live in temporary accommodation. It's a shite state of affairs and quite frankly the Tories dont give a fuck, Labour will talk the talk but not walk the walk.

It's got sod all to do with owning electronics. Rents, mortgages, council tax, food, public transport, gas and leccy, blah fookin' blah, next to nothing is cheap or affordable anymore.

What an ableist post. No my kids would not eat it not because they are picky because they are disabled one of my dc is prescribed milkshakes due to being dangerously underweight. Can you really not see beyond your own nose?

I am frequently appalled on here regarding the attitude towards food. A large number of posters seemingly think that it is perfectly acceptable to feed their young babies nothing but pouches, and jar foods. And then going on to feed them a diet of processed nuggets, etc... Something has gone really wrong in this Country regarding how a lot of children are being fed. When I think of the food that I used to get at school, and compare it to the average school dinner now, I am just left shaking my head. There are ways to feed a family nutritious food cheaply. There always were, lots of people would just not be interested in wanting to eat those foods though.

If you've got
Cooking equipment
Gas and electric
A store cupboard
Time and knowledge

You can cook cheaply

If you've got a bare fridge/cupboards, and nothing on the gas and electric, you are going to be better off with Iceland frozen stuff and a pack of value biscuits. Because its quick, cheap, easy and children will eat it

Jobseekers allowance is £84 a week. Carers allowance is £76. Pretty hard to run a household on either of those. Good budgeting or not.

It's not just food you need to buy though. It's everything else, the bin bags, washing up liquid, laundry powder, hand soap, shower gel, shampoo, deodorant, sanitary products, cleaning supplies, transport to and from the supermarket... Which one do you not leave off so you can stock an empty store cupboard with flour and other essentials needed to be able to eat cheaply.

Being poor is expensive.

@PawsisShady and let me add:

• it's easy to shop in Aldi if you live near one
• you can forage for blackberries if you have green spaces nearby

People don't seem able to factor in the cost of transport. However, it's good to see the 'let them eat porridge ' brigade challenged in such numbers by posters who get it.

The cost of living crisis is made exponentially worse by having children. Those families with more than 1 child on low incomes are utterly screwed, throw in unexpected bills and you have a very serious problem. This desperation will seep into crime statistics before we know it.

I wonder if a turning point will ever come when everyone has an equal chance of living a healthy happy life without the burden of money struggles. Surely there’s got to be better than this? Why as humans do we inflict this destitution onto the most vulnerable?

Who is gaining from all this misery?