Last week, our CEO, Jonathan Pauling, and our Policy and Advocacy Manager, Amy Deptford, attended a breakfast event hosted by the Industry and Parliament Trust to discuss the scale of food insecurity in the UK and how we can improve access to healthy and nutritious foods.
The event was chaired by Baroness Browning, Member of the House of Lords Food, Diet and Obesity Committee and focused on answering the question: How can we encourage households to prioritise fresh produce over convenience foods and ensure everyone has access to a nutritious diet?
It was great to hear from speakers Dr Megan Blake, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Sheffield and John Taylor, Managing Director at innocent.
Dr Megan Blake says “The UK is a wealthy country, yet too many families struggle to have a diet that meets their nutritional needs. A disproportionate number of these are households where there are also children. This situation, if it is allowed to persist, will undermine the ability of the government to fulfil its missions. Economic growth means good jobs with people who are healthy enough to do them. Too many of the NHS resources are taken up with treating diet-related illnesses. In highly deprived communities, the rate of children presenting as overweight and obese is twice the rate of those in the least deprived areas.
Too many of our communities have been left behind. It is easy to blame those who struggle for making bad choices, but the fact is that in too many places, the choices are so limited that there is no choice. Food interventions such as the Rose Vouchers for Fruit & Veg projects are increasing the choices that people have so that they can access the nutritious food they need.”
We highlighted how the cost-of-living crisis and the rising costs of healthy food, particularly fruit and veg, is making a healthy diet out of reach to millions of people living on low incomes. The Food Foundation reports nearly 10 million adults and children live in households struggling to afford or access sufficient food. Of households that reported experiencing food insecurity in the past month, 60% also reported cutting back on purchasing fruit and 44% on cutting back vegetables1.
We shared how our Rose Vouchers for Fruit & Veg projects transform diet and health outcomes for families on low incomes whilst supporting local food businesses, such as independent markets and greengrocers. We called for the Government to make it easier for local authorities to pilot and scale these projects through existing funding such as the Family Hub and Start for Life funding, and the Community Eatwell commitment.
This new government has a huge opportunity to take a fresh and innovative approach to tackling food poverty and food-related ill health. For real change to happen, we all need to work together.
1 Latest food insecurity tracker shows millions struggling to feed themselves | Food Foundation