Nearly 8.5 Million People in UK Struggle to Eat, According to Shock Survey

09 May 2016 --- Nearly 8.5 million people in the UK struggle to get enough food to eat while 4.7 million go a full day without eating due to lack of money, according to shock new figures.

Estimates from the data, provided by the UN, reveal that the UK – the 6th largest economy in the world – ranks in the bottom half of European countries, on a par with Hungary and Latvia.

The data suggests that as many as 8.4 million people in the UK struggle to get enough to eat while an estimated 4.7m people report they went a full day without anything to eat at all due to lack of money.

Sustain, the food campaigning group, has now called on the government to prove yearly measurement of food poverty in the UK, to help highlight the issue.

"We urgently call on Government to commit to annual measurement of the extent of food poverty in the UK. The absence of regular, accurate data keeps the magnitude of the problem hidden,” said Hannah Laurison, who coordinates Sustain's Beyond the Food Bank Campaign.

"The UN figures underline the importance of accelerating action to prevent households from becoming food insecure,” she explains.

Sustain has now called for the following changes:

We call on Government to conduct annual measurement of UK food insecurity, which was last measured over ten years ago.
Further research is needed to understand the implications of food insecurity on food choices and health outcomes. Data from the U.S. and Canada suggests that food insecurity is associated with poor health outcomes as well as higher healthcare costs.
We call on Government to adopt policies that ensure that all citizens have access to good food as a matter of course, not as a result of charity.

Food insecurity is variously defined as experiencing hunger, inability to secure enough food of sufficient quality and quantity to enable good health and participation in society, and cutting down on food due to financial necessity.

The UN data is based on a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,000 adults.

The Food Foundation, which analysed the data, said the data should be treated with caution due to its small sample size, but said it represents a wake up call.

“This survey is a wake-up call reminding us that too many people are sometimes too poor to eat in the UK,” said the Food Foundation’s executive director, Anna Taylor.