Hungry for change: fixing the failures in food Contents
Appendix 5: Experiences of food insecurity
Introduction
1.This note provides a summary of a series of telephone calls with people who have experienced poverty and food insecurity. It contains a report of each conversation.
Background
2.On 17 March 2020, the Committee was due to hold an informal engagement session with people who have experienced food insecurity. Food Power, an initiative run by Sustain and Church Action on Poverty had helped to organise the event. Due to COVID-19 crisis, this event had to be cancelled.
3.In place of the session, on Friday 22 May and Wednesday 25 May 2020, the secretariat undertook a series of phone calls with the individuals who had planned to attend the original event. The secretariat was put in touch with these witnesses by Simon Shaw, Programme Manager at Sustain, and Ben Pearson, Empowerment Programme Officer at Church Action on Poverty, who identified and contacted witnesses. The Clerk and the Policy Analyst of the Committee led the phone calls, asking a set of questions that had been circulated to the individuals beforehand, with the Committee Assistant of the Committee taking notes. Ben Pearson also took part on the calls and occasionally asked follow up questions (the note indicates where this occurred).
4.All participants were informed of the purpose of the phone calls and gave consent for their testimony and names to be published. The views outlined in this note are those of the individuals we spoke to.
5.The team based each phone call around the following questions:
(a)How do you choose what to eat? What is most important?
(b)What does a healthy diet mean to you? Do any difficulties get in the way of that? What would make it easier?
(c)How easy is it for you to cook? What would make it easier for you to cook at home?
(d)What does food poverty look like for you or people in your community? What effect does it have on daily life?
(e)What effect has coronavirus had on your diet or ability to access food? What effect has it had in your community?
(f)Do you have any suggestions for what government, councils or other public services could do to help?
(g)The Committee will be making suggestions to enable more people to access a healthy diet. Is there anything you think they should understand that they may not know?
Session 1: Penny, Newcastle
Q. How do you choose what to eat? What is most important? What does a healthy diet mean to you? Do any difficulties get in the way of that? What would make it easier?
- Penny reported that price was the overriding factor in choosing food and stated: “It is what you can afford.”
- Penny referred to supermarkets reducing their prices at certain times and said that she would choose from this section, looking at the reduced food to plan what meals could be made from them.
- When asked about accessing healthy foods, Penny referred to price being the main factor.
- She wondered whether people knew about healthy food and how to prepare it.
- Penny told us that she would buy some kinds of food (for example, chicken nuggets and chips) because she could be confident children would eat it, as opposed to vegetables which would not be eaten, wasting money.
- She believed that healthy food costs more than other food.
Q. How easy is it for you to cook? What would make it easier for you to cook at home?
Q. What does food poverty look like for you or people in your community? What effect does it have on daily life?
Penny told us that:
- The amount of energy on the meter can limit what you cook: soup only requires one pan, whereas a full meal requires more energy.
- Equipment is important: some people are only able to eat things that can be heated in the microwave
- Food poverty has a big effect on daily life.
- There is a limited choice in the content of food parcels at food banks—you get what you are given. You can also get given things in a food parcel that you don’t have equipment to cook
- A lot of dietary requirements are not always considered in food parcels. Penny told us that she has a dairy intolerance and cannot drink the long-life milk in the food parcels
- Penny questioned the point of giving tins to homeless people—to eat tins you need a tin opener, a pan, and a hob.
- Penny suggested that food can be more expensive if you have an intolerance. She estimated that non-dairy milk is 40p more expensive than cows milk.
Q. What effect has coronavirus had on your diet or ability to access food? What effect has it had in your community?
- Penny has two key workers in her home.
- She felt that delivery slots are not working and that there didn’t seem to be a priority for NHS staff getting deliveries, in her experience.
- Penny told us that printing vouchers is a barrier for accessing food, there is nothing in place for those who cannot do so.
- Attending schools to collect meal vouchers is an added inconvenience
- She said that stockpiling had reduced the range of products available in the shops. She believed that people on higher incomes have bought lots during the pandemic, but waste more, so lots will spoil.
- Penny has extra food in her house and will give it to people on her estate who are struggling: people will ask others in the community for help rather than accessing help elsewhere. She told us: “It is a pride thing too, just because you have no money does not mean you have no pride”.
Q. Do you have any suggestions for what government, councils or other public services could do to help?
- Penny said that the Government should look at Universal Basic Income, so everyone has same amount whether working or not. It would give enough money to buy the food needed to stay alive. Penny praised nearby councils for being connected: she believes they aim for people to be thought of as people and not just a statistic.
- Penny said that Universal Credit is all online but that many people are not tech-savvy or cannot afford to be. She pointed out that public WiFi is unavailable at the moment, but if you don’t have access to WiFi you cannot do the job searches required by Universal Credit
- Penny mentioned “next day shops” where you can bulk buy food about to go out of date. Includes McDonalds and Greggs.
- Penny said she thought education on cooking and budgeting is important. Schools need to: “Teach kids how to cook, especially on a budget”
- She said that Government funding cuts have diminished general support, including citizens advice, which was great but has had cuts. Council used to run drop-ins and tea sessions. She said that more support should be available via phone for people who do not know how to fill in forms.
- Penny said that charities are taking on the bulk of responsibility over the councils: “Charitable people have come in and propped it up, they’ve had to take on more and more”. Penny said her local food bank closed before lockdown due to the age of volunteers—leaving a provision gap of around a month.
- When Ben Pearson asked about the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on her mental health, Penny said lockdown has had a big impact on mental health. Her interactions with people have changed. She gets a phone call from her mental health nurse every 6 weeks and her operations are delayed until possibly next year.
- When asked if lockdown impacts on her dietary choices, Penny said: “Yes! If you haven’t got it in, you aren’t going to risk going out and getting it.”
- Penny said that it is sometimes cheaper for her to buy a takeaway than to cook. She said that the local chippy can feed three people for a fiver: cheaper than in shops, especially when accounting for energy usage to prepare food. She said that takeaway options are very unhealthy, fried and processed food, full of fats and grease. She said that as long as kids are not crying because they’re hungry–fast food is what you are going to do.
- Penny said that schools can give children fruit and vegetables, because they can afford waste: but you can’t do that, you will give your kids food they are going to eat
- Penny told us that three quarters of people on her estate use pre-payment meters which are more expensive than paying by direct debit.
- Penny said that more people need to speak out. She believed that there has to be more people like this who say: “I think this is wrong, we need the support”. People who live like this shouldn’t have to live like this. She believed that people should be shown that they can have a voice and can speak out, they can be heard, and that this will show the Government that there are more people in poverty than in wealth
Session 2: Tia, Blackburn with Darwen
Q. How do you choose what to eat? What is most important?
Q. What does a healthy diet mean to you? Do any difficulties get in the way of that? What would make it easier?
Q. How easy is it for you to cook? What would make it easier for you to cook at home?
- Tia told us that she distinguished between good weeks and bad weeks. If it’s a good week, she will try to get ingredients to make a whole meal such as curry (which is good because there will be leftovers for another meal). On a bad week, she will have frozen food as it is a meal all in one, making it cheaper overall than making a homemade meal. She said that if you buy a frozen lasagne you can wait to cook it any night of the week but using fresh ingredients a fresh one needs cooking within days so there is less flexibility.
- Tia has had free school meals. She was given £2. A hot meal is £1.50 so she had to get the selected meals: she could not choose to add or mix the elements of the meal. Tia told us that there are separate lines and tables for free school meals and lunchboxes and different tables, so she feels like the stigma starts very early on.
- Tia told us that if you have a choice of drink from the shops, a smoothie is £4 and coke is £1 so she thinks that healthy food is more expensive than cheap food.
- Tia told us that school didn’t start until 9am and that you could get a free piece of toast and tea at 8.30am but that lots of people didn’t come in early for a piece of toast.
- Tia told us that to get free school meal vouchers during lockdown, children have been asked to wear their school uniform and have to walk across town.
- Tia told us that she feels lots of people in her community are struggling with food insecurity, but they don’t want to talk about it because there is such a stigma.
- Tia told us that there are informal support networks for those who don’t have family and that there is a Facebook group to get support. Otherwise friends get food from friends to avoid being judged by anyone else.
Q. What effect has coronavirus had on your diet or ability to access food? What effect has it had in your community?
- Tia told us that at the start there was panic buying before her mum had been paid, so there were limits on how much they could get. At first, they couldn’t get pasta. She said that usually her grandparents will provide lifts to get to the shop. During lockdown, this couldn’t happen, so Tia’s mother now goes out more often and does more trips to carry everything she will need for the next few days.
- In the area where Tia lives there is one tiny ASDA, one Iceland and a giant Sainsburys which she says is too expensive. Tia said that because the ASDA is so small, people have to go to multiple shops to get what they need: there are not as many deals or reduced items.
- Tia believed that there should be more awareness of the people who are struggling: not everyone is experiencing the same problems.
- Tia explained some problems at school related to poverty and food insecurity. Teachers might give detentions which take over half of lunchtime, and lunch might be the first meal of the day for some children. She also provided the example of a bake sale for a charity at school, where not everyone can realistically donate. Tia said she felt like teachers were “picking on” students who come in in their trainers, haven’t eaten and are misbehaving, rather than wondering what else is going on. She said she felt like unhealthy food options also affect behaviour and energy levels.
- Tia had cooking lessons in secondary school but she said that they are not taught how to budget for the ingredients. She said that you are expected to bring in the ingredients, and that students get a detention if you don’t have the ingredients, but that their parents might not have been paid yet. Tia also said that non-uniform days at school are £1 each. Tia is one of three siblings, so her family has to spend £3.
Q. Do you have any suggestions for what government, councils or other public services could do to help?
Q. The Committee will be making suggestions to enable more people to access a healthy diet. Is there anything you think they should understand that they may not know?
- Ben Pearson asked Tia if the Government should do something differently to promote a healthy diet to make it more in line with people’s experiences. Tia said that she feels the Government creates a stigma, suggesting that everyone can eat a healthy diet, but they can’t: it is more expensive.
- Tia told us that people are shown the negatives of the food they eat, for example, the video of what goes into a chicken nugget. She said she feels that this does not address the problem that a chicken nugget may be all their parents can afford.
- Tia said she felt like the Government talk about all the options people have but don’t talk about how they are going to do it or carry out it.
Session 3: Monica, Oxford
Q. How do you choose what to eat? What is most important?
- Monica told us that it is what is the cheapest and what is available at the time—things that are easy to cook. She said that she thinks fresh food is more expensive so choosing what is cheap, including frozen, despite knowing what is in it.
- Monica has to eat healthily because she has IBS, but has to really budget to make do. When asked if anything other than price would make it easier to choose the healthy food, Monica said no, only price. She said every penny has to be budgeted on benefits.
Q. What does a healthy diet mean to you? Do any difficulties get in the way of that? What would make it easier?
Q. How easy is it for you to cook? What would make it easier for you to cook at home?
- Monica told us that not having cooking equipment gets in the way of cooking—people make do or use a microwave. The right equipment would make it easier to cook food, and a lot of people haven’t got access to a cooker or cooking equipment at all.
- Monica said, when cooking, you have to make sure you have enough gas and electric on the meter asking yourself if that is going to finish this meal. Then it is a choice putting gas on with your last £10 or buy food with your last £10. She said it can be very difficult at times.
Q. What does food poverty look like for you or people in your community? What effect does it have on daily life?
- Monica works with people in extreme food poverty, and at the moment she is seeing a lot of in-work poverty in Oxford, even more so since COVID because people have lost their jobs, having to rely on foodbanks.
- When asked by Ben Pearson if in-work poverty is overlooked, Monica said that people assume people in-work are ok, but some people are working three or four jobs to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. This gets over-looked because they are working.
- Monica had previously been homeless. She said that when she had been homeless, the idea of healthy food was not a priority compared to getting enough food. She had known what a healthy diet was but couldn’t access the facilities to be able to cook a healthy meal. Ben Pearson asked about the impact of hunger on Monica’s mental health, she said that hunger does impact on your mental health and on your tiredness, as well as on behaviour.
- Monica said that some of the people she works with don’t have a cooker or a microwave just a single hob for beans and toast.
Q. What effect has coronavirus had on your diet or ability to access food? What effect has it had in your community?
- Monica said that lots of children are going without a meal, as the only meal of the day was at school. These children might just have a sandwich and a packet of crisps.
- Monica works for a charity which has delivered 500 food parcels to the vulnerably housed during April. When asked if there was support for this charity from the Government to provide food during lockdown, Monica said that there was hardly anything, and that charities and groups have formed to fill the gap: this relies on the goodwill of the people of Oxford to come together.
- When asked about the Free School Meal vouchers during coronavirus, Monica said that the vouchers have not been accessible for a lot of people, and that is what they rely on to purchase food. She said that the facilitator was struggling to keep up with demand. The vouchers had taken weeks to come through, then, when received, they often do not work in the shop. Families then go back to the issuer, and the vouchers get resent. She said that some schools just made up packs and delivered them to students.
- Monica told us that many adults are going without food because they would rather their children eat. She thinks that this is more common now during COVID-19 lockdown. She said that more people have been pushed to ask for help, which they do not usually do because of shame and stigma.
- She spoke of some difficulties in applying for Universal Credit. She spoke about job centre staff as being hit and miss with whether they are helpful or truthful. She said Universal credit leaves very little money to buy healthy food after bills. Many of her clients buy food and then don’t pay bills, getting themselves into arrears.
Q. Do you have any suggestions for what government, councils or other public services could do to help?
Q. The Committee will be making suggestions to enable more people to access a healthy diet. Is there anything you think they should understand that they may not know?
- Monica said that the Government should look at how little people get on benefits and that it is not much once you’ve paid your bills.
- When asked about budgeting, Monica said that the job centres provide very little help. There is a programme where job centres can “money manage”, taking charge of the benefits received, paying bills, and paying small amounts daily to recipients, which works in some scenarios but not in others. Monica said that UC is a difficult system to navigate.
- Monica suggested more provision for breakfast clubs and afterschool clubs. She said children go without breakfast and have to wait until lunch to get food. After school clubs have been cancelled because of cuts to funding.
Session 4: Cath, Newcastle
Q. How do you choose what to eat? What is most important?
- When asked about priorities for food choices, Cath said that “full tummies are at the top every time.”
- Cath said that the ‘yellow sticker’ reduction aisle is important. Cath waits for items to be reduced by supermarket staff and doesn’t know anyone who doesn’t do this. She buys minced meat and chicken as it can be used for multiple dishes - people on a budget will have left over meat for another dish.
Q. What does a healthy diet mean to you? Do any difficulties get in the way of that? What would make it easier?
- Cath said that she buys frozen vegetables as they are a lot cheaper than fresh. This affects the variety of what one eats.
- When asked about food labelling, Cath stated that labels were not important: fortnightly money arrives, bills are paid, then shopping has to be as economic as possible. She said: “You just want to make sure tummies are full - you don’t care about labels”.
- When asked about the logistics of shopping, Cath said that you might learn times and places for reductions: that knowledge is shared with others in the community. Cath does not drive, so she cannot do a full fortnightly shop.
Q. How easy is it for you to cook? What would make it easier for you to cook at home?
- Cath told us that equipment in social housing can mean that cooking takes much longer. When asked by Ben Pearson about energy costs, Cath stated that she replaces cooked meals with sandwiches o-r porridge with water.
- Time was also an issue. She questioned why she would make her own pizza when pizza can be bought for £1 and 15 minutes in the oven.
Q. What does food poverty look like for you or people in your community? What effect does it have on daily life?
- Cath said that in the last few days before money arrives, she might only eat one meal a day.
- Cath said that she thinks many people may not know they are in food poverty. Taking food from donations, projects giving out food, and people sharing food is very common and normal, it is just seen as people being kind.
- Cath spoke of disappointment from sharing information with charities and completing surveys. “They’ve been surveyed to death”. People want to see outcomes, and something change.
Q. What would you say is the most important effect of coronavirus for you? What effect has coronavirus had on your diet or ability to access food? What effect has it had in your community?
- Cath said she has had to admit she cannot navigate day to day life without a mobility aid, so she has obtained one. She said that her mental health has been bad during this time. She is worried she is putting a lot on her partner.
- She said that people are not aware of the support available, which is itself sporadic. Cath stated that access to support is like a lottery, it is dependent on having the right telephone number. People do not want to knock on doors because of the virus, so many people have slipped through the net, particularly those who do not have internet. She suggested that organisations should do a leaflet drop, providing telephone numbers.
- When asked about the school meals vouchers, Cath stated that these now have to be collected from the school on particular days.
Q. Do you have any suggestions for what government, councils or other public services could do to help?
- Cath mentioned three local initiatives which she thought could be learnt from and perhaps extended.
- The Pantry. This is an example of a social supermarket, to give dignity to people using foodbanks. £1 joining fee, then donated food is purchased at half-price. One can get extra big boxes of food.
- The Food Forest, Middlesbrough. Allowing people to grow their own food.
- Feeding Families. This organisation feeds people via social services and job centres. Cath suggested that this organisation could tap into more local groups, allowing them to access wider client groups. There should be some way of combining that with other voluntary groups who are just as valuable.
Q. The Committee will be making suggestions they hope will allow more people to have access to a healthy diet. Is there anything that you think they should understand that they might not know?
- Cath suggested that Government appears to “live in a bubble” and does not take in the reality of how much things in supermarkets cost. She said: “working families are having to access food banks, do they not hear that?”
- She stated that interpersonal support is crucial and that people need a friendly face and someone external to talk to. Support groups play a part in encouraging people. They might, for example, encourage someone to try gardening and growing food, or to take part in a group such as Food Power.
- When Ben Pearson asked whether social welfare support provides enough to have a healthy diet, Cath said that she did not think it did.
Session 5: Heather, Newcastle
Q. How do you choose what to eat? What is most important?
- Heather said that price and time were the key points, and that it has to be cheap and quick. She also said time was a factor and that she “doesn’t have time to ‘chop everything individually”.
- Heather said she would only buy shop brands. Frozen vegetables are cheaper in larger quantities. She gave the example of stir fry which uses frozen, pre prepared food.
- When asked if she uses take-aways, Heather said she does, because it is cheaper. She said that a standard portion of fish and chips will feed three in her household. She said that this is around £5-£7 and can feed three for a meal. Making it yourself can cost more, if not around the same. When energy costs are factored in, it is more expensive to cook it yourself.
- Heather spoke about energy costs. She uses the electric cooker, rather than gas. She had to change to electric cooker after having moved house and this was an extra expense. She said sometimes she might have to choose between cooking or putting the heating on. She talked about having to keep warm without heating.
- Ben Pearson asked about logistics of shopping. Heather does one big shop a month. For her, shopping on her own isn’t something she can do due to disability as she needs help carrying things. Said she is lucky to have a big Asda which is in theory within walking distance. She told us that she does get deliveries but there is a minimum required spend on delivery, so she sometimes has to go to the corner shop, which she thinks is far more expensive. She said that a can of tomatoes can be 50p more in corner shop than Asda.
Q. What does a healthy diet mean to you? Do any difficulties get in the way of that? What would make it easier?
- Heather thought that fresh fruit and vegetables are more expensive. She stated that you cannot eat healthily if living in food poverty. Focussing on trying to get fruit and veg can waste money, leaving nothing for staples such as pasta and bread. She said that with nuggets and chips, you get more for your money—it lasts longer and feeds you more. Fruit and vegetables go off, people need food that lasts.
- She said that, in the social supermarket (the Pantry), it is a ‘lucky dip’. She said that there were lots of potatoes but not much in way of other vegetables and fruit, which were also rare to see in the food surplus distribution centre. She says that it is a struggle to eat healthily when using food surplus centres, and that you can’t plan in the same way. Food choice depends on where she can go shopping.
- She said that food is more expensive in the city centre (where she works), and she cannot always bring food into work.
Q. How easy is it for you to cook? What would make it easier for you to cook at home?
- When asked by Ben Pearson about energy costs, Heather suggested that if essential uses of electricity (light, cooking etc) could be distinguished from non-essentials, the essentials could be free. She said that people have to choose between these things. She stated that it was depressing to be always aware, she felt like had to ration the heating and always had to be conscious of putting heat on for an extra half hour. She has had to give blankets to friends visiting her, and felt like this put people off coming round. She felt isolated because of this.
- Heather spoke about mental health getting worse when everything is ‘spiralling’.
Q. What does food poverty look like for you or people in your community? What effect does it have on daily life?
Heather spoke about some techniques she has to follow to deal with food poverty. These were:
- Choosing only own brands.
- Shopping in reduced section for fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.
- Putting as much as possible in the freezer to keep it for as long as possible.
- She said this was draining as you had to go out every day to get reduced sticker items. She said what you can eat depends on what you could get.
- Heather mentioned fuel poverty, and of trying to find food that doesn’t need to be cooked. She said that this is hard for people on pre-paid meter, who have to constantly check how much energy they have and working out if its more expensive to boil kettle for pot noodle, or cheaper to freeze or use oven. Heather said she was constantly having to make choices, but that you don’t have a choice whether to think this way. It is ‘mentally draining’ having to think about energy costs and cooking.
- When asked what she does when there isn’t enough food in the cupboard, Heather said that: “Most people just don’t eat.”
- Heather stated that “no one wants to admit it, they feel like failures”. It is only when you have relationships with people that it is possible to admit food poverty. One of her friends at the same place at work regularly has to say to her, ‘I haven’t eaten in two days’. It took her friend a long time to ask for help. “She is a proud woman and doesn’t want people to know she is struggling”.
- Heather referred to in-work poverty. There are 3 people in her household, working most of the time, (one is part-time), but they still can’t afford food all month round. She said: ‘there is always something going on which is ruining their ability to get them through the month’
Q. What would you say is the most important effect of coronavirus for you? What effect has coronavirus had on your diet or ability to access food? What effect has it had in your community?
- Heather said that the 20% of pay that furloughed people are not receiving might be their food budget for the month. She suggested that this could be the difference between paying one bill and paying the food, then ending up in debt, extra letters and stress on them. Then they have to choose bills over food.
- Heather said that people in her community have always lived pay-check to pay-check: she thinks that most people are about 2 bad months from being homeless.
- Heather said she thinks that people don’t have money to save for a rainy day, so there are no savings. For example, if the fridge or freezer breaks, they won’t get a replacement for a long time.
- Heather said it is cheaper to buy frozen mince in bulk than fresh. Not everyone has the space to store bulk bought products, so people are forced to buy smaller, more expensive things (eg mince). They cannot stockpile.
- She can only buy some kinds of meat. For example, while she really likes lamb, she would never buy it as it is always expensive. She always went without lamb because she can make more with equivalent mince, which will last longer, for less than the price of one leg of lamb. It also takes longer to cook.
Q. Do you have any suggestions for what government, councils or other public services could do to help?
- Heather said she would like to grow vegetables but has never been able to afford an allotment. If there were more space, growing vegetables would be a good idea, providing this food to the community.
- When Ben Pearson suggested that local councils should provide more community gardens, Heather liked this idea. The allotments near her aren’t owned by the council any longer, they are owned by a private group in Newcastle area. “You don’t get a response from councils either”.
- Heather said it would be good if the community could use spare plots of land near them, they could grow some vegetables, and, if not vandalised, it would look nice.
Q. The Committee will be making suggestions they hope will allow more people to have access to a healthy diet. Is there anything that you think they should understand that they might not know?
- Heather said that a lot of people don’t want to be on benefits. She said people feel like failures but sometimes they can’t help it, for example physical or mental illness. Making PIP (Personal Independence Payments) easier to access would be helpful for people with disability. She thought that universal basic income would be a good idea, and give people the “ability to live, not just survive”.
- She said that she thinks people working in DWP do not understand people’s position because they have always got pay-checks coming in. She understands the reality of people not knowing when next payment is going to come in, or whether they are going to sanctioned if their baby’s ill: “they have never lived it so they don’t know”.
- She spoke about “People having some humility”, and that people should realise that not everyone getting benefits is a “scam artist”. She spoke about the third generation of families not working, but this can be to do with ill health or poor mental health. She feels that relationships should be built to try and understand the reasons behind not working. She said that workers in job centre should have more empathy for people who are not having a good time but are trying to do the best they can.
- Heather sits on the financial exclusion group in her local council. She said she “tells them how it is”. She passes on the experiences of others, providing a voice: “we are not there to look at figures but they can put figures where they need to” She said that: “Unless people tell them they won’t know!”
- Asked by Ben Pearson if all councils should have this function, Heather said that she thinks this should be mandatory. She said all councils should have a group of people who can state ‘grass roots’ views. Every council should have this interaction with people.