The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Food poverty
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24/08/2013
Jamie Oliver attacks food choices of poor families
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has said he finds it 'hard to talk' about modern-day poverty when he comes across families on low incomes who live on junk food but spend money on expensive TV sets.
Oliver was being interviewed by the Radio Times magazine about his forthcoming television project, which he hopes will encourage healthy eating by people on modest incomes.
Oliver said: 'I'm not judgmental, but I've spent a lot of time in poor communities, and I find it quite hard to talk about modern-day poverty. You might remember that scene in Ministry of Food [a previous series], with the mum and the kid eating chips and cheese out of Styrofoam containers, and behind them is a massive fucking TV. It just didn't weigh up'.Category: News stories -
19/08/2013
Food bank enquiries jump 78 per cent
New figures from Citizens Advice show a 78 per cent rise in enquiries about food banks in the past six months. Enquiries about food banks in Citizens Advice Bureaux have risen in almost every region of the country. One of the hardest hit areas is the West Midlands, with a 142 per cent rise over the period.
The Citizens Advice chief executive, Gillian Guy, called the spike in requests for information about emergency food supplies 'alarming' and warned that 'a perfect storm of pressures' is increasing demand. She said: 'Ministers will be particularly concerned that I am getting reports from our bureaux of working families being forced to turn to foodbanks... Many working people struggle to pay bills and pay for food in the few days before pay day and are forced to seek emergency help'.Source: Press release 19 August 2013, Citizens Advice
Links: Citizens Advice press releaseCategory: News stories -
13/08/2013
Child hunger in London
As many as nine per cent of children in London, or the equivalent of 74,000 children, may be suffering from inadequate food intake. That's one of the key findings of research conducted by Ipsos MORI for the Greater London Authority. The study involved interviews with over 500 parents and 500 children, at all income levels and across London, designed to understand the impact that hunger has on their lives.
Category: Reports -
25/06/2013
The forgotten poor: refugees and asylum seekers
In all the talk of tackling child poverty, one group has been largely ignored, children of refugees and asylum seekers. Stephen Crossley reports on poverty amongst this 'minority within a minority' and the role local agencies should play.
Category: Articles -
20/06/2013
Money worries: 2013
The Communities in Action (CiA) project identified debt and financial insecurity as a collective problem with profound impacts on family life and people’s health. Here you will find information on what is happening in households across many different communities and how local experiences fit with the wider picture in Northern Ireland.
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30/05/2013
Food poverty – call for parliamentary inquiry
The number of people in food poverty is not being monitored properly, and could total more than half a million, according to a report from Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty. The report calls for an urgent parliamentary inquiry into the relationship between the benefits system and the growth of food poverty.
Category: Reports -
24/04/2013
Big increase in use of food banks
There was a 170 per cent increase in the number of people turning to emergency food banks in 2012-13, according to food bank charity the Trussell Trust. It says almost 350,000 people received at least three days' emergency food during the 12 months to 31 March – nearly 100,000 more than anticipated and close to triple the number helped in the preceding year. Of those helped, 126,889 (nearly 37 per cent) were children.
Category: News stories -
07/03/2013
One million poor children ‘missing free school lunch’
More than one million children living in poverty in England are missing out on free school meals, according to research from a children's charity. The Children's Society says there are some areas where more than two-thirds of children in poverty are missing out.
The charity has produced an interactive map showing the situation in each of the 533 parliamentary constituencies in England.
Category: Reports -
25/02/2013
Fears over food poverty among children
Fears have been highlighted that children's nutrition is suffering as a consequence of the economic recession, following a new survey of professionals working with children. At the same time the government is reported to have commissioned research into the rapid growth of food banks, soup kitchens and school breakfast clubs.
The Children's Food Trust (formerly the School Food Trust) surveyed 253 professionals online between November 2012 and February 2013.
Category: Reports -
18/02/2013
Food poverty ‘threat to human rights’
The rapid increase in poverty-related hunger in Britain means the government risks breaching international human rights obligations, a group of charities has reportedly warned. The group – which includes the Child Poverty Action Group, Crisis and Age UK – says it will monitor food poverty in Britain with view to the possibility of triggering a formal investigation by the United Nations.
Source: The Guardian, 18 February 2013
Link: Guardian reportCategory: News stories
