A hunger crisis is rapidly developing among British people in lockdown, as millions report having to go without meals, food charities and local government have warned.
The Food Foundation said that 1.5 million Britons reported not eating for a whole day because they had no money or access to food. Some 3 million people in total were in households where someone had been forced to skip some meals. More than 1 million people reported losing all their income because of the pandemic, with over a third of them believing they would not be entitled to any government help. Local authorities told the Guardian that the Food Foundation findings reflected what they are seeing on the ground. In Liverpool, for example, there has been a 150% increase in emergency grants from the council to people who have no food or money for electricity since the lockdown.
The numbers reporting going hungry in the last three weeks are 1.5 to two times higher than those experiencing hunger over a whole year in recent times, according to Dr Rachel Loopstra, lecturer in nutrition at King’s College London.
“They suggest the Covid-19 lockdown has had a swift and devastating impact on the population’s ability to access sufficient food, both for economic reasons and because of self-isolation,” she said.
Charities running food banks are also struggling to cope with a huge rise in people coming to them for emergency parcels. Sabine Goodwin, coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network, said she feared the government was being too slow to respond and the situation was “spiralling out of control”. She said: “Food banks in our network are seeing as much as a 300% increase in footfall compared to this time last year but are still struggling to source enough appropriate food.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/11/uk-hunger-crisis-15m-people-go-whole-day-without-food
The Food Foundation said that 1.5 million Britons reported not eating for a whole day because they had no money or access to food. Some 3 million people in total were in households where someone had been forced to skip some meals. More than 1 million people reported losing all their income because of the pandemic, with over a third of them believing they would not be entitled to any government help. Local authorities told the Guardian that the Food Foundation findings reflected what they are seeing on the ground. In Liverpool, for example, there has been a 150% increase in emergency grants from the council to people who have no food or money for electricity since the lockdown.
The numbers reporting going hungry in the last three weeks are 1.5 to two times higher than those experiencing hunger over a whole year in recent times, according to Dr Rachel Loopstra, lecturer in nutrition at King’s College London.
“They suggest the Covid-19 lockdown has had a swift and devastating impact on the population’s ability to access sufficient food, both for economic reasons and because of self-isolation,” she said.
Charities running food banks are also struggling to cope with a huge rise in people coming to them for emergency parcels. Sabine Goodwin, coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network, said she feared the government was being too slow to respond and the situation was “spiralling out of control”. She said: “Food banks in our network are seeing as much as a 300% increase in footfall compared to this time last year but are still struggling to source enough appropriate food.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/11/uk-hunger-crisis-15m-people-go-whole-day-without-food
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