Is food poverty real?

[Leapfrog44]

Provocative title, sorry I know food poverty is real. I'm just not convinced about the extent of it.

I've cooked half a packet of dried chickpeas 50p which we eat fried with garlic, salt and olive oil. They're also delicious with pasta or with potatoes as a curry. Braised Puy lentils (60p) cooked with onions, celery and the bendy carrots left in the fridge.

And to really push the boat out an aubergine stew with onions and tomatoes. The 3 big aubergines cost £1.50. Tomatoes and parsley came from the garden.

I spent an hour cooking today including making a loaf of bread. With some rice or couscous, and some salad, what I've made will feed us for 4 nights.

We have apples too, foraged at the weekend. The windfall ones I cut the bad off and stewed them, the rest are good for eating. There are also elderberries, plums and a few late blackberries dotted around the margins of the city for anyone who can be bothered to go out and pick them.

I know not everyone has a garden but a very small space can be used to grow quite a lot. In pots I grew enough tomatoes, green beans and lettuce to feed us all summer. If I was less lazy or more skint, I'd also seed save, to ensure I can grow them for free next year. Many allotment holders would totally give up some produce in exchange for labour too.

So I guess I'm wondering if the increasing number of people who are in financial dire staits and find themselves needing to use food banks are in fact suffering from a lack of food education as much as lack of money? Our grandparents in the same situation would have cultivated every bit of earth with home grown vegetables and I'm sure would have been more resourceful and more capable of making do on very little.

Obviously there are very vulnerable people without the means to cook or to grow but surely not everyone experiencing 'food poverty' is in this category? I often wonder why at food banks they don't ask if recipients have access to a bit of ground (or a few pots) and give them seeds? Pulses and in season veggies are incredibly cheap and with a few quid you can feed your family really well if you know how to cook them. It's far better to cook a simple vegetable curry or dhal and eat it all week than have to exist on the pot noodles, tinned sludge, sugary cereals and biscuits that they're giving out.

Times are going to get MUCH tougher. Climate change and environmental destruction will soon jeopardise our food security and food banks will not be able to help everyone.

So AIBU? As a society are we actually getting poorer and hungrier or have we just raised a couple of generations lacking general resourcefulness, cooking skills and horticultural know how? Times are tough for increasing numbers but I can't help feeling that many of these people just don't have a clue how to help themselves.

Bimgy85 I grew up in a third world country. I live next to this horrendous poverty, and there is no safety net there, at all. I find it very insulting that people here who get at the very least shelter and some money for food think they are being treated very badly. You live in a la la land if you think you know what real poverty is.

I do appreciate that however that comes down to another topic on here before: being able to support children before you have them....

All of this disregard for what people are experiencing in this country in 2018 because it isn't the same as what people in other countries are going through is abhorrent. I genuinely cannot believe people honestly think like this even after pages and pages of people relaying their past and current experiences. But hey, you're not a starving child on the streets of a remote village so put up and shut up.
Just disgusting.

This thread is incredibly depressing and it astounds me that there is such ignorance rife in this day and age.

I have shown my ignorance when it comes to poverty and suffering and I have been told in no uncertain terms by someone that I had no idea what it is to be poor (I genuinely don’t - my extremely privileged and completely comfortable middle class upbringing made sure of that). However, I would hope that I would be able to muster up enough awareness and empathy of others’ to know there is true real poverty in this country even today. Ignorance is no excuse for being narrow minded or have a bit more understanding, empathy, and knowledge. The OP should be ashamed.

Benjaminbuttonschild Why don't you jog on? It's a public forum, love.

CognitiveDissonance That starving child in a remote village deserves my £££ more than some kids here. You give where you want to give, I give where I want to give.

Can you give me an excuse as to why someone can't work/better their career to at least make life affordable for them? And if they cannot work, why not? If there's no disability or mental illness why aren't you working/ trying to make a better life? Like we all have to? Or were they just brought up thinking it's ok to just get money from the government and live day to day?

Have you seriously not got any empathy at all?

I live in London. I know a woman who has two children, both born when she was in a relationship with their father who has since buggered off. She is a nice woman with very few formal qualifications which makes getting work quite difficult. She hasn't got an English or Maths GCSE and she doesn't have any prospect of getting these. Her youngest is two so not easy for her to work anyway as childcare fees here are sky high. She absolutely isn't just sitting around expecting to be funded but she doesn't have many options in terms of work. Rents are expensive. She needs to take care of her children. She can't afford for someone else to do it on any likely wage she might earn and she's not actually capable of going off and doing a degree and bettering her prospects etc. I saw her older child on her own in the supermarket buying bread, cheese, carrots, pasta, milk etc the other day (the cheap stuff, nothing remotely extravagant). She had her mum's card to do a contactless payment and it was declined. Mum had set her a budget of £10 and she'd gone slightly over. So I paid for her shopping. I suppose if I hadn't, they'd just have gone hungry. The mother contacted me saying she'd pay me back, but of course she won't because she can't and I honestly don't care. I'm really fortunate to have been able to fix it for that kid. There are tons of kids around with nobody to fix it for them.

@Boodapoo You're right. Poverty in the UK is not abject poverty like you see in the 3rd world. Most people in food poverty don't look underweight. They often don't have access to high quality healthy food but are not starving in the real sense.

@Hiphopfrog get to fuck

Boodapoo. Try it. You might like it.

So we can only feel bad for people if they have reached developming country poverty?
Dh is from Afghanistan and I’m from a war zone too. I’ve seen horrendous living. But that doesn’t mean people who live here are struggling any less. I’ve seen families working and not have any money for food and constantly at food banks to feed their children.

All this talk of bettering yourself and getting a better job is not the answer.what happens to your old job? It is filled by someone else who will be in the situation you were!

@Boodapoo no thanks I'll stay put and watch you ignorance and arrogance shine for all to see. Love.

But hey, you're not a starving child on the streets of a remote village so put up and shut up.
No one said that exactly. But yes, the emotional choice between a starving child somewhere in the Horn of Africa and someone who would rather starve than eat aubergines in the UK is (for me) easy to make. Compassion does not stop at a political border.

@Hiphopfrog
Back in ye olden days we had third world poverty. People died from it
Now we don’t. But we still have food poverty. End of
This isn’t a race to the bottom. We have evolved
Do you know how many people died of malnutrition on the past?

Hiphopfrog Agreed. And people making excuses because they are less educated therefore make bad choices, that's laughable. Education in this country is free. Where I came from it's not, and kids do walk for miles just to get to school so they appreciate the education more.

longwayoff try harder, hun

There are allotments downstairs funnily enough , us tenants are not even allowed to go in there even if we did get bloody seeds

Maybe you're thick but I'll spell it out for you. I agree with the OP, and I am a MNer whether you like it or not. I am not a Daily Mail reader*

You're here disregarding the harsh reality hat is people lives because it doesn't resonate with what you personally know to be poverty yet i'm the thick one? Ok, whatever makes you feel better.

I didn't quote you, I quoted @Bimgy85 but MN is no stranger sock puppetry so I understand how quickly you were confused by your own argument

Lastly, anyone who feels the need to throw insults in order to substantiate their point, really doesn't have much faith in their own point at all.

Anyway, you shouldn't argue with thick people so, I'm done here.

I remember having a similar conversation with my ex. It was in the context of the DC's harvest festival. The charity the school supported gives food to people who are either homeless or in very insecure situations. They ask for basics with a long shelf life preferably that can be eaten without cooking and they prefer tins to have ring pulls as many who will receive them don't have a tin opener but may be too ashamed to admit it. Ex had lived in a middle class bubble all his life and admitted that his childhood harvest festivals involved lots of pretty displays of produce from farmers and the WI. He had never experienced food, fuel or transport poverty and took making a meal or jumping in the car and popping to the supermarket totally for granted. That day was a huge eye opener for him but I think he still struggled to see how someone might be so skint that they have to choose between a loaf of bread and a tin of beans or a couple of quid on the meter to keep the lights on or have hot water for a wash. That you might literally be able to afford to cook a meal or wash your clothes therefore you will do the wash and eat cold ravioli, if you're lucky enough to have some that is. I've lived like that. I remember washing DS1's baby clothes in the bath in cold water because we had no hot water or gas to heat some. The washer had broken but was too power hungry anyway. It was February and freezing cold. What little electricity we had went on boiling a kettle in the morning to fill a couple of flasks for the day. A special food treat was something like jam instead of plain bread. And being able to buy a pack of toilet rolls instead of getting them singly (and less economically) at the corner shop was unimaginable luxury. That's turned into an essay but I never forget how well off I am now relatively speaking as I can afford to heat and eat and stay clean.

If you really wanted to change the world you would use your amazing knowledge of cheap healthy tasty food to set up a FREE KITCHEN serving daily food FOR FREE. On the streets handing out recycled cardboard boxes with paper sporks and a smile.

But you won't because deep down you're thinking "I'm alright Jack"

It's time as well. I have enough money that I could make a quick meal tonight
But I worked 8am - 4.30pm, got home at 5pm and was out to work a second job 5.45 - 10pm
So I got home, threw some veg and meatballs into roast and chucked some tomato sauce over them
If I had no oven, no money and no gas... pot noodle would have been my choice

Yeah, David Clapson (for example) died for a fucking laugh, not because he was hungry.

I work and we are now on our poor week but thank God it's only a week. Scrape the money together for the electric meter could mean you have no choice but to buy cheap not nutrious food if you want everyone in the house to eat.
If you're working you come home tired. You don't want to mess around with chick peas and lentils. You just want to eat. Quickly.
In winter you don't top the gas up so you keep your coat on in the house sometimes even in bed. That's so you can get to work without walking 4 miles.
Believe me the struggle is real. I have been there through no fault of my own with 2 young children after my partner left us. I couldn't work as dd was a toddler.
I don't live like that today but I understand why people do and 99% of the time it's not their fault but some bad luck like losing a job.
I think we should be thankful for what we have and considerate of those less fortunate.
Rant over