Tackling Food PovertyOnly a more comprehensive approach will work

Dr. Deirdre O ConnorUCD

Nov. 5th 2008

Outline

• Reflect on some key insights from this morning’s presentation

• Food poverty in the wider poverty context

• The Healthy Food for All Initiative (HFfA) – its role and activities in this arena

• Some concluding remarks

Tackling Food Poverty

….for most people, food is much more than simply a bundle of nutrients…. It is also an expression of “who a person is, where they belong and what they are worth”.

Dowler (2003)

Tackling Food Poverty

• Insights from this morning re complexity of the food poverty issue:

• Wide range of influencing factors – socio-economic circumstances, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge.

• Cross-sectoral response required across a range of levels of public policy and the community sector.

Tackling Food Poverty

• Food poverty as a dimension of people’s experience of poverty in ROI

• Investigated by Vincentian Partnership (2000) and Friel et al. (2004)

• Captured in deprivation indicators used to measure “consistent poverty” in ROI

Tackling Food Poverty

• Vincentian Partnership study (2000) noted that inadequate income levels “made it impossible to provide a reasonably healthy diet.”

• Friel et al (2004) in Cost of Healthy Eating study showed that requisite “basket” of groceries would absorb:

80% of income of a lone parent family 70% of income in a household comprising 2

adults/2 children

Tackling Food Poverty

• “Official” measure of poverty of ROI based on combination of a low income measure and deprivation indicators (between 8 and 11 used)

• 4 indicators are food-related – 3 related to food consumption, 1 related to social participation

Tackling Food Poverty

• Food-related deprivation indicators are:– No substantial meal one day in past 2 weeks due

to lack of money– Unable to afford roast (or equivalent) once a week– Unable to afford meal with meat (or vegetarian

equivalent) every 2nd day– Unable to afford to have family/friends for

drink/meal once a month

Tackling Food Poverty

• Based on EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2006, for Ireland (CSO)

• Data suggest that, approx. 15% of population experience some type of “food deprivation” – based on indicators used (described above)

• Of those on low incomes (<60% of median incomes), approx 35% experience food deprivation

Tackling Food Poverty

• Different experiences of food deprivation:• Approx 10% of low income households lacked “a

substantial meal…last 2 weeks…because of lack of money”

• 28% “unable to afford to have family or friends..for a meal….once a month”

• Almost 14% “…unable to afford meal with meat (or equivalent) every 2nd day”

Tackling Food Poverty

• Small proportion of population with “intense” food deprivation – experienced 3 or 4 of above indicators (approx. 7% of low-income population)

• Food deprivation experience varies for different groups.

• eg – experience of lone parent households

Tackling Food Poverty

• Almost 50% of lone parent households experienced some kind of food deprivation (based on indicators)

• …..as did 36% of unemployed people • …..and 23% of non-nationals • .....and 20% of those aged under 16• ….and 29% of those classified as ill or disabled.

Tackling Food Poverty

• Reinforces need to “embed” local and community responses to food poverty in a wider framework – including tackling poverty and social exclusion

• Consider Healthy Food for All (HFfA) Initiative as an attempt to this address “bigger picture”

Tackling Food Poverty

• HFfA – a multi-agency initiative, seeking to combat food poverty by promoting access, availability, affordability of healthy food for low-income groups on the island of Ireland

• Activities focused at • Community level: supporting local and

community food initiatives; direct food provision; school meals

Tackling Food Poverty

• Networking: Fostering a learning networks to identify best practice on promoting healthy food for low-income groups

• Policy and advocacy: Promoting awareness of food poverty across relevant aspects of public policy – focus on affordability, access and availability

Tackling Food Poverty

• Current/recent activities include:

• Policy submissions at national and international levels

• Including Pre-Budget submissions, EU Schemes (Deprived Persons; Proposed School Fruits Scheme)

Tackling Food Poverty

• Development of “Good Practice Guides” for School Food Initiatives and Community Food Initiatives

• Production of a revised “Financial Cost of Healthy Eating Study” in progress

• Demonstration programme for Community Food Initiatives (funded by safefood)

Tackling Food Poverty

• Programme aims to support the development of limited number of Community Food Initiatives (CFIs) on the island of Ireland

• Emphasis on networking, dissemination of shared learning and best practice related to CFIs

Tackling Food Poverty

• Amount/calibre of applications received evidence of vibrant CFI sector

• Cautionary note: community/local food projects as the “new philanthropy” as argued by Dowler and Caraher (2003)

• Prevalence of “downstream” approaches to addressing food poverty (as distinct from “upstream” approaches)

Tackling Food Poverty

“..few human rights have been endorsed with such frequency, unanimity or urgency as the right to food, yet probably no other human right has been so comprehensively and systematically violated…”

(Alston, 1984)