Across the globe widespread food insecurity is a millennia-old enduring problem. It was said to affect an estimated 800 million people worldwide by 2001, with malnutrition in small children being a significant factor.
Action Against Hunger defines hunger thus:
Hunger is the distress associated with lack of food. The threshold for food deprivation, or undernourishment, is fewer than 1,800 calories per day.
Undernutrition goes beyond calories to signify deficiencies in energy, protein, and/or essential vitamins and minerals.
Malnutrition refers more broadly to both undernutrition and overnutrition (problems with unbalanced diets).
Food security relates to food availability, access, and utilization. When a person always has adequate availability and access to enough safe and nutritious food to maintain an active and healthy life, they are considered food secure.
By December 2020 UNICEF was warning that millions of children in crisis hotspots were ‘on the brink of famine’, highlighting the need of 10.4 million children in Democratic Republic of the Congo, northeast Nigeria, the Central Sahel, South Sudan and Yemen wiho are expectedb to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021.
The African continent and Middle East are extreme examples of the world’s failure to equitably distribute food in times of crisis.
The Global Hunger Index 2020 indicates 33 counties experiencing alarming to serious levels of hunger in their populations and another 26 countries having moderate levels of hunger.
However, although the Index shows that by comparison OECD countries were the least affected by hunger, the COVID-19 global pandemic is increasing hunger, including child hunger, in these countries.
By way of example…………..
According to CNBC Make It in December 2020:
Millions of Americans are facing hunger as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic — and many of those are children. An estimated 17 million children could go without enough to eat this year, according to Feeding America, a leading national nonprofit food bank network.
Nearly 12% of Americans, or 25.7 million people, reported not having enough to eat over the past week, according to the latest Household Pulse Survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Dec. 2. Nearly 14 million households with children report they sometimes or often do not have enough to eat.
In June 2020 iPolitics reported:
One in seven Canadians lived in a household where there was food insecurity in April and those living with children are more likely to be impacted from food insecurity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study from Statistics Canada.
The survey, which was part of the Canadian Perspectives Survey Series (CPSS), collected data from May 4 to 10 from 4,600 respondents in all 10 provinces. Of the participants, 14.6 per cent indicated that they lived in a household where there was food insecurity in the past 30 days.
The survey was based on a scale of six “food experiences” ranging from food not lasting until there was money to buy more, to going hungry because there was not enough money for food. Most Canadians reported only one negative experience, but 2 per cent reported the most severe food insecurity, with five or all six experiences reported.
Canadians who were employed during the week of April 26th to May 2nd, but absent from work due to business closures, layoffs, or other personal reasons related COVID-19, were more likely to be food insecure (28.4 per cent), compared to who were working during that period (10.7 per cent). The rate of food insecurity for those who were not employed during the reference week was in between these two, at 16.8 per cent.
The Guardian also reported in September 2020:
New data from the Food Foundation [UK charity] shared exclusively with the Observer has revealed that almost a fifth of households with children have been unable to access enough food in the past five weeks, with meals being skipped and children not getting enough to eat as already vulnerable families battle isolation and a loss of income…...
A reported 30% of lone parents and 46% of parents with a disabled child are facing food insecurity and finding it difficult to manage basic nutritional needs at home. With schools no longer providing a reprieve for children reliant on free breakfast clubs and school lunches, poorer families are at crisis point…..
The Borgen Project, September 2020:
Food insecurity, fortunately, has reduced to about 10% of New Zealanders in 2019. But with the outbreak of COVID-19, the Auckland City Mission estimated that that number had rocketed to 20%. Between citizens losing jobs, panic-buying at grocery stores and other factors, the pandemic is threatening more widespread food insecurity in New Zealand. Emergency food assistance services have seen large spikes in demand. Additionally, many essential workers may be working full-time but are still not making enough to put food on the table….
Food insecurity in New Zealand remains an important problem. In the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, these problems are becoming harder to ignore. Recently, CPAG released a paper about its ideas to solve food insecurity for New Zealand’s youth, including food programs in schools. It showed that with awareness and advocacy, people can begin to find solutions to these problems. In fact, the 2020 budget plans to expand an existing school lunch program to ensure that by the end of 2021, 200,000 students will receive a healthy lunch every day at school, up from the 8,000 currently receiving aid from the program. This sort of increase is a promising step to reducing the amount of food insecurity for New Zealand’s children.
Additionally, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Auckland City Mission has gone from supporting 450 families to over 1,200 and expect that number to stay high throughout the winter. Thanks to the 2020 New Zealand budget, Auckland City Mission will be able to continue helping those in need.
It is an unprecedented time for food insecurity in New Zealand, especially on top of existing challenges lower-income families have been facing. However, with help from the government and organizations like Auckland City Mission, the country is beginning to put more focus on providing food to those who need it most.
In late 2020 Food Bank Autralia released its Food Bank Hunger Report 2020 which revealed that:
While COVID-19 has made life even more difficult for already-vulnerable Australians, it has launched others into food insecurity for the first time. Almost a third of Australians experiencing food insecurity in 2020
(28%) had never experienced it before COVID-19.
Charities have seen two newly food insecure groups emerging as a result of the pandemic: the casual workforce and international students…..
Government assistance such as JobKeeper and JobSeeker, has been a means of survival for businesses and individuals. For the most vulnerable people in our communities, however, even with these lifelines, it has been anything but smooth sailing. Of those who are in
need of government assistance, only 38% suggest this assistance has helped their situation, whereas 62% are not receiving the help they need (37% needed additional assistance, 21% were ineligible, 4% found it
too difficult to apply)…..
“WE STARTED TO SEE ANOTHER
LAYER ON TOP OF OUR REGULAR
CLIENTS, OF PEOPLE WHO
HADN’T ACCESSED FOOD RELIEF
BEFORE AND WERE DOING OKAY
BEFORE THE PANDEMIC. SOME
HAD TWO WORKING PEOPLE
IN THEIR FAMILIES AND THEN
THEY NO LONGER HAD JOBS…
BECAUSE THEY WERE THROWN
INTO THAT SITUATION, THE
LEVELS OF ANXIETY AND
FEAR ROSE, PEOPLE WERE
VERY WORRIED…PEOPLE LIVE
TO THEIR INCOME. YOU RENT
PLACES YOU CAN AFFORD ON
YOUR INCOME SO WHEN YOU
HAVE NO INCOME, THE FIRST
THING THAT GOES IS FOOD.”
Angie, Reservoir Neighbourhood House.
“THE DEMAND FOR FOOD RELIEF HAS
BEEN VERY UNPREDICTABLE THIS YEAR.
WE’VE HAD TO TAKE EACH WEEK AS IT
COMES. ONE WEEK WE ACTUALLY ENDED
UP GOING STRAIGHT DOWN TO THE
SUPERMARKET AND SPENDING $600 TO
GET EXTRA FOOD JUST BECAUSE THE
DEMAND THAT WEEK WAS FAR GREATER
THAN WE HAD ANTICIPATED. WE HAD
109 FAMILIES COME THROUGH IN THAT
WEEK ALONE WHICH WAS 20 MORE THAN
WE WERE AVERAGING. WE SAW PEOPLE
COMING MORE OFTEN THAN PRE-COVID
UNTIL THE JOBSEEKER PAYMENT
INCREASE AND JOBKEEPER PAYMENTS
CAME. SOME PEOPLE WERE COMING
MORE OFTEN AND SOME WERE COMING
LESS OFTEN DEPENDENT ON WHAT THE
GOVERNMENT WAS DOING AT THE TIME.”
Peter, Kingborough Family Church, Hobart.
