Millions of British people are already struggling to get the food they need and are falling into debt because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Food Foundation said the outbreak would lead rapidly to a hunger crisis unless the government acted immediately to get food aid and money to the most vulnerable and isolated people.
Anna Taylor, director of the Food Foundation, said, “Our poll results suggest people are already going hungry."
More than 1.5 million adults in Britain say they cannot obtain enough food.
53% of NHS workers were worried about getting food.
Half of parents on low incomes with children eligible for free school meals said they had not yet received any substitute meals to keep their children fed, despite government promises to provide food vouchers or parcels. Around 830,000 children are therefore likely to be going without daily sustenance.
12% – representative of 6.1 million adults – said they were struggling to follow the government order to stay at home because they had to keep earning to survive.
The Food Foundation said the outbreak would lead rapidly to a hunger crisis unless the government acted immediately to get food aid and money to the most vulnerable and isolated people.
Anna Taylor, director of the Food Foundation, said, “Our poll results suggest people are already going hungry."
More than 1.5 million adults in Britain say they cannot obtain enough food.
53% of NHS workers were worried about getting food.
Half of parents on low incomes with children eligible for free school meals said they had not yet received any substitute meals to keep their children fed, despite government promises to provide food vouchers or parcels. Around 830,000 children are therefore likely to be going without daily sustenance.
12% – representative of 6.1 million adults – said they were struggling to follow the government order to stay at home because they had to keep earning to survive.
On 21 March the government instructed people at greater risk of Covid-19 to stay in their homes and self-isolate for 12 weeks. It said it would contact 1.5 million people in this category and set up a system with local authorities, voluntary organisations and business to deliver food parcels to the homes of those who lacked family support.
Military planners have been assigned to work with councils, but the Guardian understands that the scheme is not yet running and will take a few weeks to scale up to supplying food to 400,000 people. The Food Foundation has calculated that more than twice that number – 860,000 people who fall into the medically vulnerable category – were suffering from food insecurity even before the crisis.
No comments:
Post a Comment