Hunger in the United Kingdom
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Chronic
hunger In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. In the ...
has affected a sizable proportion of the UK's population throughout its history. Following improved economic conditions that followed World War II, hunger became a less pressing issue. Yet since the lasting global inflation in the price of food that began in late 2006 and especially since the financial crisis of 2009, long term hunger began to return as a prominent social problem. Albeit only affecting a small minority of the UK's population. By December 2013, according to a group of doctors and academics writing in the ''British Medical Journal'', hunger in the UK had reached the level of a "public health emergency". In the run-up to the 2015 general election, the issue of hunger in the UK became somewhat politicised, with right wing commentators expressing scepticism about figures presented by church groups and left-leaning activists. An All-Party MP group focusing on hunger in the UK has called for activists to be cautious in how they discuss the problem of domestic hunger, as exaggerated claims and political point scoring risk reducing public support for tackling the issue. In a 2016 report, the All-Party group stated it is not possible to accurately quantify the number of people suffering from hunger in the UK, and called for better collection of data. The UK government began the official measurement of food insecurity in 2019, The first report was published on 16 December 2021. Hunger in the UK was worsened by the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
with some food banks reporting that demand had more than doubled. August 2020 saw the United Nations agency
UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
begin funding charities helping to feed hungry UK children for the first time in its history.


Current issues


Size and growth of the problem

Since about 2012, the return of hunger to the UK has featured prominently in British media. Despite the extensive coverage, as of 2016 it was still not possible to say exactly how many Britons were experiencing chronic hunger, due to insufficient data. Numerous reports, studies and estimates have been published however, with many but not all suggesting that for some sub sections of the population, the problem may have been growing worse since the 2008 financial crises. Research published by the
OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...
in 2014 had indicated hunger in the UK may be decreasing. The number of people answering yes to the question ‘Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?’ decreased from 9.8% in 2007 to 8.1% in 2012. According to a 2016 report by ''The Food foundation'' based on a telephone survey of 1,000 people, over eight million Britons experienced either moderate or severe food insecurity in 2014; over four million faced severe food insecurity. The report was based on UN data; in February 2019 the Guardian reported it remains the best recent estimate of the extent of hunger in the UK. Due to the relatively small survey size however, its results should only be considered indicative. Also, facing even severe food insecurity doesn't necessarily mean one is experiencing chronic hunger. The rapid rise in the number of UK
food banks A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food direc ...
since 2009 has often been used as evidence of growing hunger. Critics have argued that the rising food bank use does not prove this; it could just mean unscrupulous people are becoming more aware of food banks, and using their services not to save themselves from hunger, but to have more money free to spend on luxuries.
Regression analysis In statistical modeling, regression analysis is a set of statistical processes for estimating the relationships between a dependent variable (often called the 'outcome' or 'response' variable, or a 'label' in machine learning parlance) and one ...
published by Oxford University in 2015 found that it is largely need and not simply awareness of foodbanks that is causing the growth in usage. However the academics conducting the research agree that foodbank usage is not the best measure of hunger, saying that studies in other countries have suggested that most people suffering from food poverty don't use food banks. Further indications of rising hunger include a growing number of infants and pregnant mothers suffering from
anaemia Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, th ...
; an increasing number of people diagnosed with
malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...
in UK hospitals; a rising number of children starting their first and primary year of primary school underweight. In 2015 for example, 6,367 children started reception class underweight, which is up 16% on 2012 figures. Official figures published in November 2016 indicated that the number of hospital beds assigned to folk suffering from malnutrition had nearly tripled in the last decade. Again though there is a need for caution on the extent to which such figures really reflect a rise in hunger – an NHS spokesperson said the rise may be partly explained by the health service getting better at identifying malnutrition. Malnutrition has been found to affect three quarters of women aged 16–49 indicated by them having less folic acid than the WHO recommended levels The UK government began collecting data related to hunger in the UK in 2019, with the first public reporting of this data due in March 2021. The 2020 UK COVID-19 outbreak and its associated lockdown had a "devastating impact" on people's ability to get needed food, with an April 2020 report finding as many as 1.5 million Brits had recently gone a whole day without eating. While the UK lockdown had ended in 2021, hunger remained a concern into 2022, in part due to the ongoing
UK cost of living crisis The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
.


Among children

A 2012 study undertaken by
Netmums Netmums is a website for parents in the United Kingdom, established in 2000. It operates as a network of local sites, and offers information to both mothers and fathers about parenting. The Coffee House web forum launched in 2004 for mothers to c ...
found that one in five mothers would regularly miss out on meals so as to be able to save their children from going hungry. Also in 2012, London charity
Kids Company Keeping Kids Company (in liquidation), formerly Kids Company, was an incorporated and registered charity, founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh in 1996 to provide support to deprived inner city children. From its original "drop-in" centre in so ...
named five inner London schools where 70% to 80% of pupils do not always have food at home or do not know how they will get their next meal. Children are sometimes visibly malnourished and some lose their
adult teeth An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...
due to unhealthy diet. According to a March 2013 report, teachers in London schools said that at least five children per class turned up without having had breakfast, with 41% of teachers saying they believed the children's hunger led to symptoms such as fainting. The UK Government responded to hunger in schools by re-introducing free school meals for infants up to Year 2; this was announced in autumn 2013, and became effective from the term starting September 2014. Subsequent small scale studies however have found some children are still suffering from hunger in UK schools, with a few even complaining of "persistent hunger". According to an April 2017 report by the All Party MP group on hunger, about three million UK children were at increased risk from hunger during holidays, where they no longer benefit from free meals, and other anti hunger measures available at school. A
UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
report publicised in June 2017, found one in three UK children are in "multi-dimensional poverty", with one in five UK children suffering from food insecurity. In April 2018, head teachers said children come into school malnourished and hungry. A head teacher said, "My children have grey skin, poor teeth, poor hair; they are thinner." Another head said, "Monday morning is the worst. There are a number of families that we target that we know are going to be coming into school hungry. By the time it's 9.30am they are tired." A Cardiff head teacher said children often brought just a slice of bread and margarine for lunch. All the heads said conditions were worsening as social and emotional support services were being closed. Over four fifths of heads said they saw evidence children were hungry, and roughly the same proportion said they saw children with evidence of poor health. Alison Garnham of the
Child Poverty Action Group Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is a UK charity that works to alleviate poverty and social exclusion. History The Group first met on 5 March 1965, at a meeting organised by Harriett C. Wilson. It followed the publication of Brian Abel-Smith a ...
said, "With nine children in every classroom of 30 falling below the official poverty line, it is time to rebuild the safety net for struggling families." Hunger can be an even more pressing problem for children during holidays. Children from low income families get free school meals during term time. During school holidays their parents cannot afford to feed them nutritious meals. After the long summer holiday these children return to school less healthy and less able to learn. This makes it harder for the children to get the type of education that could enable them to escape poverty as adults. In 2018, both the
Child Poverty Action Group Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is a UK charity that works to alleviate poverty and social exclusion. History The Group first met on 5 March 1965, at a meeting organised by Harriett C. Wilson. It followed the publication of Brian Abel-Smith a ...
and the charity ''Feeding Britain'' estimates three million UK children are at risk of going hungry during school holidays. A May 2020 report suggested that the number of British children experiencing hunger had approximately doubled since the lockdown was imposed for the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. In August 2020, for the first time in its history, UNICEF began funding charities working to feed British children, distributing over £700,000 to various UK NGOs. 2020 saw footballer
Marcus Rashford Marcus Rashford (born 31 October 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Manchester United and the England national team. Considered one of the best players in the world, he is known for his explosive ath ...
become prominent among those working to alleviate child hunger in the UK. By July he had raised over £20 million for the charity
FareShare FareShare is a charity network aimed at relieving food poverty and reducing food waste in the UK, which has been running since 1994. It does this by obtaining good quality surplus food from the food industry that would otherwise have gone to wast ...
. His campaign has twice led to government action to address child hunger. In November, this included causing the government to reverse a decision made in October not to extend access to free school meals during school holidays. The footballer committed to "fight for the rest of my life" to end child hunger in the UK.


Politicisation

In the run up to the 2015 general election, the issue of hunger in the UK became politicised. While the increase in hunger appears to have begun while Labour was in power, church groups and left wing commentators began to attack the
coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...
for aggravating hunger with austerity. Right wing commentators and politicians rebutted such arguments for misrepresenting the extent and causes of UK hunger. For example, in December 2012, Trussell Trust chairman Chris Mould spoke out against the coalition's welfare reforms, accusing the UK government of lacking empathy for those faced with poverty and hunger. In January 2013, a Conservative councillor argued there is no starvation in the UK and no need for food banks, saying they enabled recipients to spend money on alcohol instead of budgeting for food, and are an insult to the billion people in the developing world who "go to bed hungry every day". A spokeswoman for Trussell responded by suggesting that while low earners in the UK avoid starvation most of the time, they can face periods of severe hunger when hit by personal crisis, which for economically vulnerable people can be something as simple as a spell of cold weather, forcing them to choose between staying warm or going hungry. However, the government countered that the proportion of benefits paid on time has risen from 88-89% under Labour, to 96-97% in 2014.
OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...
reported that people answering yes to the question "Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?" decreased from 9.8% in 2007/2008 to 8.1% in 2011/2012, leading
Toby Young Toby Daniel Moorsom Young (born 17 October 1963) is a British social commentator. He is the founder and director of the Free Speech Union, an associate editor of ''The Spectator'', and a former associate editor at ''Quillette.'' A graduate of ...
to say that the rise was due to both more awareness of food banks, and the government allowing Jobcentres to refer people to food banks when they were hungry (the previous Labour government had not allowed this). In 2016, the All-Party MP group on hunger has called for an end to political fighting over the issue, to avoid the risk of undermining public support.


History


Pre-19th century

Like the rest of the world, the UK has suffered intermittently from
famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...
throughout most of its known history. The traditional view held that food was relatively abundant in the UK, or at least in "
Merry England "Merry England", or in more jocular, archaic spelling "Merrie England", refers to a utopian conception of English society and culture based on an idyllic pastoral way of life that was allegedly prevalent in Early Modern Britain at some time b ...
" with its "miraculous fertility". Even as early as the 19th century this view was challenged, with medical historians such as Charles Creighton arguing that the effect of hunger in checking population growth was roughly equivalent on both Britain and continental Europe. Creighton lists dozens of famines which affected Britain, though does not attempt to catalogue them comprehensively. One 21st century estimate suggests Britain suffered from 95 famines during the Middle Ages. Creighton does, however, write that sometimes a generation or more would go by between famines, and that evidence suggests that in normal times, the standard of living was higher for peasants in Britain compared with their counterparts on the continent. It was only in the late 18th century that Britain, as the world's first country to
industrialize Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econom ...
, was apparently able to overcome the risk of famine, at least on the mainland. Hunger continued to afflict a sizable minority of the population, however, specifically those who lived on incomes well below average.


19th and 20th century

Improvements in agricultural technology, transportation, and the wider economy meant that for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, severe hunger receded as a problem within the United Kingdom. An exception occurred in the 1840s. Known as the
Hungry Forties The European Potato Failure was a food crisis caused by potato blight that struck Northern and Western Europe in the mid-1840s. The time is also known as the Hungry Forties. While the crisis produced excess mortality and suffering across the aff ...
, various problems affecting food production resulted in millions suffering from hunger all over Europe. In the early 1840s the UK was relatively less affected than the rest of Europe. Yet thousands of working-class people still starved to death, including in England, Scotland and Wales, in part as it had become illegal to give poor people aid. In Ireland, which was part of the UK at the time, the Great Famine struck in 1845, and over a million died of hunger and related disease. From the late 1850s, the availability of food and the ability of even the poorest to pay for it generally improved. The 1920s and 30s were an exception to this. There was no famine, yet mass unemployment became a problem in several parts of the UK. While the ''New Poor Law'' had been relaxed,
workhouses In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
were still in existence, and without a well-paying job, it was often difficult for working-class people to feed themselves and their families. The UK saw a number of
hunger marches Hunger marches are a form of social protest that arose in the United Kingdom during the early 20th century. Often the marches involved groups of men and women walking from areas with high unemployment, to London where they would protest outside pa ...
in the 1920s and 30s, with the biggest being the National Hunger March 1932 and perhaps the most famous being the
Jarrow crusade The Jarrow March of 5–31 October 1936, also known as the Jarrow Crusade, was an organised protest against the unemployment and poverty suffered in the English town of Jarrow, near Newcastle upon Tyne, during the 1930s. Around 200 men (or "Crus ...
. From the outbreak of World War II, unemployment swiftly vanished, and remained very low in the UK for decades afterwards. Food was often limited during the war and the first few years after, but a rationing system generally ensured no individual would overly suffer from hunger. With a relatively generous and inclusive
welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
established after the war, and with food prices often falling in real terms, hunger within the UK was no longer a pressing problem for the second half of the 20th century.


21st century

Until about 2009, severe hunger was rarely considered a problem which afflicted people living within the borders of the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. There were a few exceptions - a tiny minority of people might "fall through the cracks" in the welfare system. While some hunger relief efforts were undertaken by civil society, this was generally just provided on a local and mostly informal basis. This began to change in 2004 when
The Trussell Trust The Trussell Trust is an Non-governmental organization, NGO and charity that works to end the need for food banks in the United Kingdom. It supports a network of over 1,200 food bank centres to provide emergency food and compassionate, practical su ...
established a franchise model for UK
food banks A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food direc ...
, though they only had two establishments. This attracted little media attention at the time – before the
financial crisis of 2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of finan ...
even the concept of "food banks" was virtually unknown in the UK. Like most of the rest of the world, economic conditions in the UK were adversely affected by the lasting global inflation in the price of food that began in late-2006 and especially by the 2008 financial crisis. For the first couple of years after the crisis, the rise in hunger was checked in part by the UK government's
fiscal stimulus In economics, stimulus refers to attempts to use monetary policy or fiscal policy (or stabilization policy in general) to stimulate the economy. Stimulus can also refer to monetary policies such as lowering interest rates and quantitative easi ...
, which boosted public spending to head off the threat of depression. Yet by 2010, stimulus policies began to be replaced with an austerity programme. Low earners would increasingly see their incomes fall further due to enforced cuts in working hours and sometimes even to rates of pay. People who had suffered lasting falls to their income began to draw down savings and run out of friends of whom they were willing to ask for help, leading to increases in the numbers suffering from hunger. In 2006, Trussell food banks operated in six local authorities, by 2009 this number had risen to 29. The pace of growth accelerated sharply from 2009: by 2013 Trussell was operating food banks in 251 local authorities. In a September 2012 report for ''
Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...
'', economics editor Paul Mason asserted that hunger had returned to Britain as a substantial problem for the first time since the 1930s. He noted that about 43% of those needing emergency food assistance from food banks have been affected by benefit disruption – this can take various forms – for example, sometimes when there is a change of circumstance, such as a new resident coming to live at the family home, delays can arise in the payments of further benefits. Mason also reported that a reason even people in work or on full benefits are often needing emergency food is
debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The ...
; in particular due to the sophisticated tactics now being used by door-to-door lenders, where borrowers come to think of the credit company agent as a personal friend and so will make sacrifices in order to make repayments. In October 2012, as part of the BBC documentary ''Britain's hidden hunger'', director David Modell highlighted the way in which internet-based loan providers can also cause people to go hungry. Their contracts sometimes allow them to take out the entire balance from their debtor's accounts, at a time of their choosing. Sometimes this happens just after a benefit payment had gone in, meaning the recipient may not have any money to buy food for at least a week. In late-2012, a Muslim-run charity
Sufra A ''sufra'', ''sofra'', or ''sofreh'' ( ar, سُفْرَة; fa, سفره; tr, sofra; ka, სუფრა) is a cloth or table for the serving of food, or, in an extended sense, a kind of meal, associated with Islamicate culture. Forms of the ...
was launched to raise awareness and fight food poverty in the United Kingdom. In February 2013, Olivier De Schutter, a senior UN official warned the UK's government against leaving too much responsibility for aiding Britain's hungry to the voluntary sector. Later in 2013,
DEFRA DEFRA may refer to: * Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, United States law * Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, United Kingdom government department {{Disambiguation ...
, a government department, commissioned research into the growing dependence on food banks, breakfast clubs and
soup kitchens A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, soup ...
. In October 2013, the
Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
announced it will start providing hunger relief in Britain for the first time since
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Also in October, an
all-party parliamentary group An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament. Description and functions All-party ...
was established to investigate and raise awareness of hunger in Britain. In December 2013, an e-petition by hunger relief campaigner
Jack Monroe Jack Monroe (born 17 March 1988) is a British food writer, journalist and activist known for campaigning on poverty issues, particularly hunger relief. She initially rose to prominence by writing a blog titled ''A Girl Called Jack'' (now r ...
led to a parliamentary debate on hunger in the UK. Also in December, a group of doctors and academics wrote to the
peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
''
British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...
'', noting recent developments such as a doubling in the number of
malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...
cases received by hospitals, and asserting that hunger in the UK had reached the level of a "public health emergency". The letter argued that those who are not actually starving are frequently forced to buy and eat cheaper, less healthy food. The BMJ published in 2015: The BMJ argued that "a national surveillance system of emergency food aid in the UK, of who is at risk of food poverty, and of
malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...
is needed." Health Minister Dan Poulter argued that the rise in malnutrition could be partly due to better diagnosis and detection by health professionals of people at risk. In February 2014, the report on food aid commissioned by DEFRA was published, finding that people generally turn to food banks only in desperation, refuting claims that food aid users commonly accept free food just so as to have extra money for other purchases. Also in February, a cross denominational group of bishops and other church leaders criticised the UK government's welfare reforms for worsening the hunger crisis. Church leaders launched the ''End Hunger Fast'' campaign, with a national fast planned for 4 April to help further raise awareness of hunger in the UK. Just prior to the release of the all-party parliamentary report in December 2014, archbishop
Justin Welby Justin Portal Welby (born 6 January 1956) is a British bishop who is the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. He has served in that role since 2013. Welby was previously the vicar of Southam, Warwickshire, and then Bishop of Durham, serving for jus ...
stated that hunger "stalks large parts of the country" and that it shocked him more than the suffering he witnessed in Africa because in the UK it was so unexpected. According to the report, key reasons for the rise of hunger in the UK include delays in paying benefits and welfare sanctions. The report also stated that in contrast to the first few decades after World War II, poor people's incomes stopped rising in line with increased costs for housing, utility bills and food. The Trussell Trust reports that numbers receiving help from food banks is steadily rising and claimed that reached 1.1 million in 2015. However the Trust was forced to admit that this number represented the number of visits to food banks, not the number of different people receiving help, which it estimated at 500,000. There is a further hidden problem of people who remain hungry because nobody in a position to refer them to a food bank recognises their need. In 2018, food bank use in the UK reached its highest rate on record to that point. 1,332,952 three-day emergency food supplies were delivered to people in crisis from March 2017 to March 2018, a 13% increase to what was reported prior and reported as a "significant increase" since April 2016. It was also reported that welfare benefits fail to cover basic living costs. According to the Human Rights Watch May 2019 report, due to government cuts in welfare in the past years, ten thousands of families in the UK do not have enough food for survival and turn towards sources of non-state charitable aid each year. "The way the UK government has handled its reduction in welfare spending has left parents unable to feed their children in the fifth-largest economy in the world. The UK government should ensure everyone’s right to food rather than expecting charities to step in and fill the gap," Kartik Raj, Western Europe researcher at
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, said.


Comparison to other countries

A 2012 survey by the OECD found that 8.1% of Britons answered yes to the question ‘Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?’, which is less than neighbouring France (10%) and the EU (11.5%) and OECD (13.2%) average, as well as the United States (22%). However it is more than Germany. Analyses by the Food Foundation thinktank published in 2016, ranked the UK in the bottom half of European countries for food insecurity. In summer 2017
Unicef UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
published a set of related reports looking at progress at meeting the
Sustainable Development Goals The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...
in relation to children, including the reduction of hunger, across the globe, and in some cases with a focus on high income countries. On a metric for the % of children under 15 living in a severely food insecure household, the UK was the worst performing member of the EU. In an indicator looking at overall progress to "end hunger, achieve
food security Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World F ...
and improve nutrition", the UK was the 8th worst performer out of 41 high income countries.


Attitudes towards hunger relief

Liberal economists, like
Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...
, took the view that government intervention would be counterproductive; that in the long run only the free market could produce sustained plenty for all. Other very different but allied views for opposing hunger relief which arose in the late 18th century included
Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Malt ...
's position that starvation was the only reliable way to check runaway population growth, and Townsend's view that hunger was a useful motivational condition, which taught "decency and civility, obedience and subjection, to the most brutish, the most obstinate, and the most perverse." The growing movement against hunger relief was supported even by some evangelical Christians, who had come to view hunger as evidence of punishment for sin, with the hungry best left to redeem themselves through their own hard work. Until the early 1830s, Lord Pitt and others who favoured government intervention largely retained control over policy, even if they had to compromise with those who opposed generous relief measures. But in 1834, most forms of aid to the poor were abolished, and this was done with almost universal support from the intellectual classes, even from the progressive wing.
Karl Polanyi Karl Paul Polanyi (; hu, Polányi Károly ; 25 October 1886 – 23 April 1964),''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2003) vol 9. p. 554 was an Austro-Hungarian economic anthropologist and politician, best known ...
writes that the reason for the broad support was that the leading form of aid in the early 19th century, the
Speenhamland system The Speenhamland system was a form of outdoor relief intended to mitigate rural poverty in England and Wales at the end of the 18th century and during the early 19th century. The law was an amendment to the Elizabethan Poor Law. It was created a ...
had become detested even by the working class themselves. Speenhamland involved supplementary payments to top up wages. Previously, levels of pay were often linked to the quality of the workman's work. With Speenhamland, workers would receive a guaranteed amount; it would sometimes vary, but only with the price of food. With the guaranteed payment, workers would usually find themselves dropping their standards, even if they had previously taken great pride in their
workmanship Workmanship is a human attribute relating to knowledge and skill at performing a task. Workmanship is also a quality imparted to a product. The type of work may include the creation of handcrafts, art, writing, machinery and other products. Workman ...
. In some areas, only a small number of the very best workers were able to avoid applying for Speenhamland assistance. A saying arose among the working class that "Once on the rates, always on the rates", and the system became increasingly disliked as it was blamed for causing dependency, discouraging good work and was widely perceived to be more helpful to landowners than to workers. For this reason, by the 1830s even progressive intellectuals and opinion formers had switched their views in favour of free-market thinking. Polyanyi records that apart from a few aristocrats whose continued support of Speenhamland could be dismissed as self-interested (the system helped workers pay high prices for food from the agricultural lands they controlled), the only well known Briton to remain prominently opposed to the free market in the early 1830s was the socialist
Robert Owen Robert Owen (; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement. He strove to improve factory working conditions, promoted e ...
. In 1832, free-market supporters seized political power, and two years later Speenhamland was abolished with the
Poor Law Amendment Act The ''Poor Law Amendment Act 1834'' (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the ''Poor Relief ...
of 1834. Other forms of aid for the poor, even
soup kitchens A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, soup ...
and handouts of food from concerned nobles and clerics, were made illegal. With a few exceptions, the only legally available form of aid was the
workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
. Workhouses became far more common after 1834, and conditions were made much harsher. The principle of " less eligibility" was established; it held that less food should be available to inmates than they could get outside even with the lowest paid available jobs, and in practice this sometimes meant they were starved.
James Vernon James Vernon (1646–1727) was an English administrator and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1679 and 1710. He was Secretary of State for both the Northern and the Southern Departments during the rei ...
, in his ''Hunger: A Modern History'' (2007), wrote that while the idea that hunger relief is undesirable first became prominent in Britain, it was also here that the view was first successfully challenged. The '' 1834 New Poor Law'' became unpopular with the working class as soon as it came into force, and to a degree they formed an alliance with some of the paternalistic members of the upper class, against the free market favouring middle classes. From as early as 1834, ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' labelled ''The New Poor Law'' the "starvation law", and they ran frequent articles over the following years showing the number of British people who starved to death because of it (which happened both in the workhouses themselves and outside, because workhouses had such a dark reputation that many would prefer either to become prostitutes or to starve to death rather than enter one). Vernon writes that by the 1840s, new journalistic techniques were beginning to make emotive appeals to readers which drove home the pain experienced by those suffering from severe hunger. The new journalism began to dispel the older late 18th-century view that hunger is a sign of moral failing, instead convincing the public of sufferers "moral innocence as victims of forces beyond their control". The new journalism in part led to a resurgence of the view that society should try to assist those suffering from hunger. Whereas older hunger relief had generally been undertook locally and on a personal level, now new efforts began to arise to tackle hunger on a national and international scale. However, it was not until the end of the 19th century that this new view became dominant - the free market view remained ascendant among Britain's governing classes for most of the 19th century, resulting in part in the refusal to send adequate food aid to mitigate the Great Famine in Ireland and to famines in India.
Lord Clarendon Earl of Clarendon is a title that has been created twice in British history, in 1661 and 1776. The family seat is Holywell House, near Swanmore, Hampshire. First creation of the title The title was created for the first time in the Peera ...
, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, wrote, "I don't think there is another legislature in Europe that would disregard such suffering." On the other hand, free-market supporters had campaigned against the
Corn Laws The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. They were ...
– measures which protected mostly upper-class landlords against competition from cheaper foreign imports, but which made food more expensive, contributing to the famine in Ireland. The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846, but this was too late to make much difference to the famine, in part as its abolition did not become fully effective for several years. By the early 20th century, the stigma of hunger had been almost entirely dispelled. The public had become much more sympathetic to those suffering from the condition, in part due to the high impact journalism of people like
Vaughan Nash Vaughan Robinson Nash (1861 – 16 December 1932) was a British journalist, economist and the husband of Rosalind Nash.Lynn McDonald, ed., ''Florence Nightingale on women, medicine, midwifery and prostitution'', Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 2 ...
,
Henry Nevinson Henry Woodd Nevinson (11 October 1856 – 9 November 1941) was an English war correspondent during the Second Boer War and World War I, a campaigning journalist exposing slavery in western Africa, political commentator and suffragist."Nevinson ...
and
Henry Brailsford Henry Noel Brailsford (25 December 1873 – 23 March 1958) was the most prolific British left-wing journalist of the first half of the 20th century. A founding member of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in 1907, he resigned from his job at ...
. In 1905, the UK saw its first ''hunger march'', and also in the early 20th century people even began to deliberately make themselves hungry in order to attract attention to their political causes, such as early
suffragettes A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
who pioneered the practice of
hunger strikes A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
within the UK. In August 2012, Marxist writer
Richard Seymour Richard Vershaun Seymour (born October 6, 1979) is an American professional poker player and former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) . He played college football College footbal ...
wrote that while it never became mainstream, the old 18th-century view that the hungry are morally responsible for their plight returned to influence in the US during the early 1980s, and that in the UK it influenced the policy of the Conservative-Liberal coalition from 2010.


See also

*
Food waste in the United Kingdom Food waste in the United Kingdom is a subject of environmental, and socioeconomic concern that has received widespread media coverage and been met with varying responses from government. Since 1915, food waste has been identified as a considerabl ...
*
Food banks A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food direc ...
*
2012 Olympic hunger summit The 2012 Olympic hunger summit was an international gathering on 12 August, the closing day of the 2012 Summer Olympics, held at 10 Downing Street London. The event was organised largely by the Department for International Development. It was co- ...
*
Kids Company Keeping Kids Company (in liquidation), formerly Kids Company, was an incorporated and registered charity, founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh in 1996 to provide support to deprived inner city children. From its original "drop-in" centre in so ...
*
Fareshare FareShare is a charity network aimed at relieving food poverty and reducing food waste in the UK, which has been running since 1994. It does this by obtaining good quality surplus food from the food industry that would otherwise have gone to wast ...
*
Poverty in the United Kingdom Poverty in the United Kingdom refers to the portion of the population of the United Kingdom that are considered to be in poverty under some measures of poverty. Data based on incomes published in 2016 by the Department for Work and Pensions (D ...
*
United Kingdom government austerity programme The United Kingdom government austerity programme is a fiscal policy that was adopted for a period in the early 21st century following the Great Recession. The term was used by the Coalition and Conservative governments in office from 2010 to 2 ...


Notes and references


External links


''Walking the breadline: the scandal of food poverty in 21st century Britain'' - May 2013 report by Oxfam and Church Action on PovertyUK portal for World hunger day, 28 May 2013, highlighting many UK based events and civil society work for hunger reliefMarch 2013 report into hunger in the UK by Kellogs and the Trussell Trust.
{{Europe topic, Hunger in U Poverty in the United Kingdom Demographics of the United Kingdom