Always hungry
An ever-increasing number of people are having to rely upon food banks. Things are inevitably getting worse
with the cost-of-living crisis. Richard Price looks back at the history of malnutrition in the UK.
During the 1930s many families suffered mental and physical disease linked to near starvation diets. Their children were often conspicuously thin. Today, many malnourished children are conspicuously overweight and have mental and physical problems of a different type – low self-esteem and the risk of heart disease or diabetes from obesity. Some children are developing insulin resistance as young as seven.
International fast-food chains are allowed to advertise unhealthy junk food which is saturated with salt and sugar and contains minimal nourishment Poorer people tend to buy these foods because they cost much less than fresh meat and vegetables. Highly processed food has a detrimental effect upon health, but it’s cheap.
After the First World War, researchers concluded that poor quality diet was a significant factor leading to infection and debilitating illnesses. We knew that certain vitamins and minerals could prevent rickets and reduce mortality from childbirth, but not everyone could afford the food that provided them. People who were on low wages or unemployed could not afford milk, vegetables, fish, meat and fruit. They subsisted on cheap carbohydrates such as potatoes, bread and fats like margarine.
People would die of conditions such as pneumonia because they were malnourished. Often the woman of the household would go without in order to feed her family. The benefits that unemployed people received (called poor relief) were insufficient to provide the minimum diet for a family. It was impossible to be healthy with the money at their disposal.
The obvious solution was for the government to pay an allowance for the unemployed and employers to pay higher wages. In 1933, the Ministry of Health Advisory Committee on Nutrition recommended an amount of money to enable families to have the cheapest practical diet. It calculated that a man doing muscular work needed five shillings, a woman four shillings 2d and (dependent upon age) children required between two shillings 9d and four shillings. But wages were so low that people had to feed their families on half that amount.
The government stance on poverty was that it did not exist in the UK. They blamed feckless uneducated housewives who were the cause of their family’s poor diet. Governments of the 1920s and 1930s were able to ignore poverty and hunger partly because the links between income and minimum nutritional requirements were just being established. It was gradually acknowledged that there was a correlation between poverty, malnutrition and maternal and infant mortality.
In May 2021, The Trussell Trust released a report entitled State of Hunger, the result of three years of evidence gathering on poverty, destitution, and food insecurity in the UK. The report described how 700,000 households had used a food bank in 2019/2020 prior to Covid 19. These families included 320,000 children. 95% of people referred to food banks were destitute. 60% of those of working age referred were disabled. 51% of referred households included someone with mental health problems. 20% were homeless and 18% were single parents. The report’s authors wrote, “The growth in levels of need for emergency food is strongly linked to limitations and changes in the social security system.”
HUNGER IN HASTINGS
Ruby, a single parent of three who came to live in Hastings after fleeing from domestic abuse, described her experience of social security in the town. She said, “A few years ago, they changed the requirements to get on to a council’s housing list. They made it really hard. You have to be out of work for three out of five years. You can’t move to a new area. They won’t let you move to a smaller flat that you can afford and then on to a bigger house. You go into accommodation that fits the size for your family before they will take you on. Any rent arrears, they don’t care if you have had an awful landlord, just any rent arrears and it’s a ‘no’.”
“They are just making it very hard to get on the social ladder and the new houses that they build now are affordable rent instead of council rent. My rent, for example, is £104 a week. Some of the new build flats are £220 a week, which is not that manageable, is it? People are being forced into low quality crap, the dregs of the council’s accommodation. Once you’re not homeless you have to work out how to feed yourself and your children. You have to prioritise rent, energy and fuel…”
Eating is a basic human need and right. Social security exists to provide a safety network for those with insufficient income to feed themselves and family. However, the current Universal Credit has failed millions of people. The standard allowance is very low as are the Local Housing Allowance rates. People who have no family or friends to turn to, or are ill or have suffered adverse life experiences are especially vulnerable. The first payment can take five weeks, leaving claimants without money for food.
Earlier this month the Independent Food Aid Network wrote to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. The group represents more than 550 independent food banks. They wrote “We are deeply concerned about the scale of suffering that we are already witnessing as well as our capacity to prevent people from going hungry in the weeks and months to come. The reasons for so much suffering were ‘well documented’ and included lengthy Universal Credit waiting times, benefits not meeting living costs which are now soaring, as well as the end of furlough payments. We are writing to urge you to take immediate action to reduce the rapidly rising levels of poverty, destitution and hunger in our communities.”
HEAT OR EAT
The dilemma of choosing between heating the home or putting decent food on the table is one that is affecting far more of us than ever before. Recent increases in fuel costs are unsustainable for most people on lower incomes. In a move to protect the energy suppliers the government raised the energy price cap allowing companies to increase charges. The temporary increase in Universal Credit instigated during the pandemic was subsequently withdrawn leaving families £1,040 poorer per year. Other changes mean that nearly 300,000 people with disabilities will no longer get the Warm Home Discount on their energy bills.
An article in The Lancet medical journal warned “Children in cold houses are at increased risk of asthma attacks, respiratory infections…in a year of disrupted epidemiology.” They also point out that damp and mould in poor housing are also major contributors to chronic and acute respiratory ill health. The combination of cold, damp housing and insufficient nourishment will almost inevitably lead to a health crisis, which will ultimately cost far more than the government is trying to save in benefits. The Food Aid Network warned that food banks only act as “a temporary sticking plaster” With the current rate of inflation; teams are already at breaking point, with food supply failing to meet the increasing demand. Perhaps the most telling comment was that the “people who used to donate to food banks are now needing to access help themselves.”
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