Official figures from the government’s Family Food report says that the poorest 10 percent of the UK population or around 6.4 million people, are not eating enough food to maintain their body weight. The figures show that for the first time since the Second World War, the poor cannot afford sufficient calories.
Press TV reports: The figures also showed the poorest are receiving less food even though they are spending more money. The data released in a report earlier this month from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs showed that the poorest people spent 22 percent more on food costs in 2013 than in 2007 but they received 6.7 percent less food.
The data also revealed that there is a widening consumption gap between the richest 10 percent and the poorest group in the UK. In 2001/2002, the richest consumed 4 percent more than the poorest group. However, in 2013, the gap had grown, with the richest consuming 15 percent more than the poorest.
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Chris Goodall, an author who writes about energy, said the government report had failed to highlight the data and that he had discovered the figures while investigating the attached tables of figures.
Goodall called the data shocking, saying the figures show “for the first time since the Second World War, if you are poor you cannot afford to eat sufficient calories.”
Liz Dowler, a professor of food and social policy at Warwick University, also commented on the figures, saying they were a “powerful marker” that there is a problem with food poverty in the UK. Dowler added that it was clear there were “substantial numbers of people who are going hungry and eating a pretty miserable diet.”
Niamh Harris
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