Food Poverty: A Public Health Crisis

Chapter 1

Introduction

Food poverty occurs when a person is not able to acquire or even consume a sufficient food quality and quantity in ways which are socially acceptable or the lack of certainty that an individual can do so successfully (NHS, 2015). Food poverty has been considered a public health crisis that gives people various unique health challenges which can lead to death (Sustain, 2017). Generally, there are three major groups of individuals who are more exposed to such risks, the working poor people, the state dependent unemployed people, and the homeless people (Fitzpatrick and colleagues, 2012). The Government of Scotland does not measure the level of poverty routinely. However, the ratio of individuals that live in significant income poverty is stated to be at eighteen percent (Scottish Gov., 2016).

A recent study by FAO (2016) shows that at least 11 to 12 % of the population in the UK live under food poverty. In Scotland, the number of individuals accessing the state’s food banks has been seen to increase amounting to about 6% (Burgess, 2016). The increase has often been linked to changes that occur in welfare access and social security entitlement arrangement. The increase has also been linked to high living costs, high unemployment rates, and zero-hours contracts which cause uncertainty and adverse socio-economic problems and consequences (ACAS, 2014).

The commitment to alleviate poverty is an essential outcome which was found in the 1995 World Summit for Social Development that was conducted in Copenhagen (UNESCO, 2001). In this summit, poverty was looked at as a serious human right abuse and injustice. The UNESCO action plan proposed to offer support to survival skills and livelihood systems to aid in combating poverty, especially by poor people through education.

Children from poor families end up less equipped emotionally, physically and socially to carry out programs at school (UNESCO, 2001). When such disadvantaged children’s unique day-to-day experiences and position are not considered by education in schools and the communities, they become unable to reap the education benefits entirely. Extreme poverty situations, (defined by the UN as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs; safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services."), particularly expose girls to high risks as they often inherit their mother’s or parents’ poverty. It is argued by UNESCO (2001) that the creation of wealth is an essential education programs aspect meant to help in poverty eradication. Responding to the poor children’s needs and contributing to the creation of wealth in the society require that education should emphasise all children to be prepared to attain some education as well as become empowered through heightening these individual’s awareness of the responsibilities and rights they have (UNESCO, 2001).

The relevance of this dissertation

The reason behind the focus of this research is establishing the role that community education can play in responding to food insecurity or food poverty with special reference to South West Edinburgh. In particular, this dissertation will make an effort to determine whether there is a rising or an increasing food poverty in South West Edinburgh, focusing at the period since 2010-2018. It will also investigate different causes of food poverty as well as the effect this food poverty has in South West Edinburgh. These causes and effects will be analysed accompanied by establishing some reasons behind various policy responses by the National Government. Additionally, this dissertation will attempt to establish the role of community education in responding to South West Edinburgh’s food poverty situation.

Research Questions

1. What is the status of food poverty in South West Edinburgh?

2. How has food poverty impacted poor families in South West Edinburgh?

3. What should be the role of –and –how can community education be useful in responding to food poverty in South West Edinburgh?

Literature

The literature used in this dissertation will include primary and secondary information from some recent high-profile and longitudinal cohort researches done across the United Kingdom that provides strong evidence of the adverse effect that food poverty has as well as the role of community education in food poverty eradication. There are various appropriate large-scale researches which have been carried out in Scotland regarding the youth transitions that can help inform this dissertation. Other studies which will be employed in informing this research include those which considers young people’s socio-demographic patterns about health behaviours particularly in Scotland. Literature:(Garthwaite, Collins and Bambra, 2015; Hagenaars, 2017; Loopstra et al., 2015) which pays particular attention to social policy and education as well as those that link social policy, health and education will also be applied in this dissertation to develop the topic of research. Additionally, literature concerning the Scottish Government: (Caplan, 2016; Caplan, 2017; Main and Bradshaw, 2016), especially how it has adopted long-term, strategic approaches as it works with other partners and the community to decrease inequality in wealth and health will be analysed.

Structure

This dissertation will first provide chapter one in the form of an introduction to the topic where the role of community education in responding to food security will be covered regarding South West Edinburgh. The aims and objectives of the essay will be provided next followed by the research questions. The second chapter will include a literature review where all relevant research material used in this dissertation will be provided. Chapter three will entail the research approach and methodology applied in this work.

The desk-based approach will be explained especially how the secondary and primary sources by different authors on the role of community education in poverty alleviation helped create this dissertation. The fourth chapter will entail the results acquired from the research approach and methodology. The various themes emerging from the results of the research approach and method will be organised based on the outlined research questions. The fifth chapter will include the discussions and conclusions. In this last chapter, the dissertation will analyse the acquired results critically. Further, in the conclusions, the principal findings will be used to highlight the essential themes and in respect to the included research questions.

Conclusion

This chapter has provided a background information on the topic of food poverty. It has pointed out the people affected by poverty and how education can help prepare young people to tackle socio-economic challenges in society. Furthermore, this chapter has outlined the aims and objectives of this dissertation as well as. This chapter has provided the research questions that guide this study thereby making clear the intention of this research and what is to be analysed. Moreover, this chapter has explained the types of literature which will be used to inform this study. It has been noted that high profile research papers conducted across the UK and Scotland will be analysed especially those based on the role of community education in food poverty eradication. It has also been noted that the government literature will also be used to develop the topic of this dissertation.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

Introduction

This section presents an exploration of literature existing about food poverty and in the UK and its adverse impact on the population. Further, literature on the role of community education in the eradication of food poverty has been presented.

Food Poverty

According to the NHS Health Scotland, defining food poverty and its associated problems presents numerous challenges. Food poverty is regarded as a part of other forms of poverty. NHS Health Scotland makes use of the subsequent, widely used, definition: ‘Food poverty is the inability to collect or consume a good enough or enough quantity of food in socially desirable approaches, or the uncertainty that one can be able to achieve this".

According to the Food Research and Action Centre (FRAC), food insecurity and poverty are social determinants of health and are associated with a number of the health issues within the country. The Department of Health, UK, defines food poverty as ‘The lack of ability to have enough money, or to have access to, food’. Loopstra et al., (2015) integrated food poverty to other things considered as poverty including low income and lack of services. Although meals choice is inspired by way of many interrelated elements, in purchaser-pushed surroundings, the importance of food price and having the cash to shop for food are key. Looking into the same is issue a comparison between food poverty and the general poverty, O'Connell et al., (2019) insisted that rising income expenditure, low wages, process lack of confidence, underemployment, the low degree of social security benefits, and changes to an inefficient implementation of the welfare have impacted the number of human beings experiencing food poverty. Food price instability and the higher meals inflation skilled via poorer families similarly increases uncertainty around what's low cost (O'Connell et al., 2019; Caraher and Coveney, 2016; Sonnino and Hanmer, 2016) . As a specific measurement of poverty, food poverty is ultimately rooted in political and social choices made in our society. Increased food prices is harder for low-income households to deal with because those on low incomes spend a more percentage in their earnings on meals - an upward thrust in food expenses has a disproportionately big effect on money available to spend elsewhere (Dowler and O’Connor, 2012; Taylor-Robinson et al., 2013) .

Food Poverty in the UK

Based on the consequences of a 2017/2018 Scottish Health Survey which used the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), over one-region of respondents to the survey stated having to enter debt as a minimum as soon as inside the previous year to pay for meals provides a stark indication of the way essential the impacts of economic difficulties may be’ (cited in O'Connell and 2019). It becomes also set up that for every food bank person, there have been nearly 4 different households who experienced common trouble purchasing meals, but who had no longer used a food bank' (Hagenaars, 2017).

A new publication by UNESCO highlights that three million children in the UK are probably to not able to find the money for a healthy and balanced diet program, as defined by using the government’s Eatwell Guide (Caplan, 2016). It also notes that the poorest households in the UK (families earning less than £15,860) spend 42% of their disposable earnings on food. An envisioned eight million struggle with getting adequate food; includes many families with human beings in paintings, families with kids, in addition to older and disabled human beings (Sonnino and Hanmer, 2016).

The Impact of Food Poverty

The relationship of food poverty and general poverty is a complex one in which several key dimensions may be found; including sick health, disability, and lack of job, lower level of education and employment and a higher fee of residing and so on. The risk of food insecurity in low-earning households is associated with loss of getting admission to land, single-figure households, and lack of opportunity profession, volatile earnings level and having a negative family head. The maximum important trouble facing by way of the most people is insufficient to get admission to food that is fundamentally an outcome of poverty (European Commission, 2000). Food poverty consisting of being hungry and multiple episodes of hunger have been associated with but no longer with chronic conditions or asthma. Higher odds of and of have been discovered among who skilled multiple episodes of hunger compared with folks that had been by no means hungry.’ (Kirkpatrick, McIntyre, and Potestio, 2010) Persistent food insecurity is related to [among children], even after adjusting for sustained poverty and different potential confounders.’ (Slopen et al., 2010)

The timing bewteen respondents' meeting the diagnostic screening criteria for remained tremendously full-size even when controlling for factors known to confer elevated danger of depression and time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity.' (Caplan, P. (2017) Food poverty in homes results to children experiencing large impairments that persist throughout their growth.’ (Howard, 2011).

The fluctuations in the prices of food resulting from food poverty and insecurity, such as was experience in 2008 reflects the impact food poverty on the general population and more particularly on the poor families ( Cooper, Purcell and Jackson, 2014; Garthwaite, Collins and Bambra, (2015). This overview attracts proof from studies on the effects of the 2007–08 fee spike, in addition to from some other economic crises that led to excessive food costs. As anticipated, cost of food leads to malnutrition and poverty. As broadly expected, bad net food importing nations (such as importing areas of West Africa, and nations in conflict) were most of the first to sense the effects of rising global meals costs, and international assistance centred initially on these (Von Braun et al., 2008; Brinkman et al., 2009). High food expenses had been additionally recorded as having an extreme effect on terrible purchasers in net food exporting regions such as Thailand, Uganda, and northerly Mozambique. The highest charge rises have been recorded from nations wherein there have been exacerbating local or regional delivery and call for pressures; those blanketed struggle, drought or in a few instances, as an instance Benin, speedy regional financial increase main to rising client demand. The poorest households — inclusive of many woman‐headed families and people with a huge percentage of dependents — had been worst hit anywhere. These households spend a higher percentage in their income on food and have much less get right of entry to credit score and financial savings. The predominant effect of rising food charges became therefore from growing intensity of poverty in the ones already negative (the so‐ known as poverty gap) as opposed to the numbers of human beings newly driven over the poverty line (the poverty headcount).

During the crisis, casual salary labourers, farmers, small investors, and manufacturers of commodities whose terms of exchange declined in opposition to meals grains: as an example pastoralists in Kenya, cotton farmers in Benin and tea people in Bangladesh, were the most affected. Salaried people in the formal sector usually fared better than others. While the maximum of the high‐profile protests about food fees got here from city regions, the various poorest and worst‐affected human beings live in rural areas. Existing social safety and monetary structures regularly do now not attain this organization. The shape of land ownership and production patterns in maximum terrible countries intended that simplest a minority of farmers and agribusinesses were capable of benefit from hastily‐rising fees. Inequality is probably to have expanded, even though quantitative data is skinny. One model estimated an increase in a country’s inequality index of 1% for a 20% nominal food rate rise, even as real price rises were often four instances this stage (Cudjoe, Breisinger and Diao, 2010; Von Grebmer, et al., 2014). Within nations, local inequality is likewise probable to have elevated, with marginal and dry agricultural regions coming off worst. The regressive impact of growing iv food costs contrasts with research on rising fuel fees and the global financial crisis, that have generally found that city and richer areas are the worst hit within the brief time period. Children appear to have suffered most. Studies from Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Mauritania said will increase to the order of fifty% in stages of acute malnutrition of bad underneath‐fives, with plausible hyperlinks to rising meals charges. In a few regions, youngsters additionally misplaced out on training: a few studies said very excessive (> 50%) college drop‐out quotes of children from the poorest households, and lots of faculty drop‐outs never go back (Downing, Kennedy and Fell, 2014.

Most poor households were left to cope on their personal with excessive fee rises. Community assist reportedly declined in many regions, as charge rises affected anybody. Very few of those surveyed in early‐mid 2008 suggested having acquired any assistance from the nation or NGOs. External help turned into additionally slow to reach. Nearly all families surveyed suggested reducing lower back on a huge variety of expenditure items and ingesting less expensive, frequently much less nutritious, food. Many city families fed on extra street meals, which changed into regularly cheaper than home cooking due to economies of scale. Households normally chose to protect their effective belongings and human capital, as an example by way of taking up more paintings to make ends meet. However priorities various, and there has been no standard sequence of ‘coping strategies’ (Headey and Fan, 2008 ; Caraher and Cavicchi, 2014). A remarkable finding was the big use of savings and credit, which includes pawning valuables to buy food – showed with the aid of reviews from microfinance institutions. The significance of finance for intake smoothing has infrequently been cited inside the international literature on the food rate spike, although some authors have drawn attention to the importance of credit for increasing smallholder meals production.

Community Education in the eradication of food poverty

Families living in poverty are within the lowest earnings bracket, have a higher prevalence of health problems, inclusive of high maternal mortality rates, and are prone to poor nourished (Purdam, Garratt and Esmail, 2016; Hagenaars, 2017). Despite these struggles, parents in these families show determination to provide good education for their children (Spencer, 2018). That is their first precedence while they're asked what is most crucial to them. According to this observation, Spencer, (2018) insisted in the obligation of the policy makers to provide them with a school that responds to their expectations.

Education for the people living in poverty will deliver exchange to the various systemic factors which have contributed to the put off in the groups’ improvement. Education can prevent the transmission of poverty between generations. Education additionally has documented effect on fitness, nutrition, and monetary development and on environmental safety (UNESCO 2104: Sustainable improvement starts with schooling (cited in Main and Bradshaw, 2016))

Food insecurities results from poverty and unequal distribution of resources, but it is also because of insufficient know-how of production techniques and on nutritional facts (Purdam, Garratt and Esmail, 2016; Loopstra et al., 2015). Early malnutrition weakens youngsters' bodily and cognitive potential and even their non-cognitive trends which include motivation and staying power.

Through simple education, poor families analyse more about fitness and are higher able to protect themselves and their kids from illnesses. The stage of fitness among children and the youth improves if their parents have had schooling. It increases their chance of receiving training thus increasing possibility to make higher income in future (Cooper, Purcell and Jackson, 2014 Caraher and Coveney, 2016). It is crucial to keep in mind that improvements in a single area, benefits several others. search for the simplest synergies. UNESCO (O'Connell et al., 2019) shows that education is important to escape chronic poverty and to save a community from the spread of poverty.

A justice method involving government and society creating environments and situations that enable people get enough food is effective. Rather than focusing on individuals and their issues, it acknowledges that social and economic systems can lead to extreme inequality inside the financial repute of households. Rights, inscribing a minimum standard of living (Ashton, Middleton and Lang, 2014) – “Everyone has a good living, food, housing, medical care and essential social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, incapacity and lack of livelihood.”

The justice version has been followed by means of the network food security movement, a free community of activists and companies, formerly united through the non-profit organization, the Community Food Security Coalition. The dreams of the Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program are: "to meet the food desires of low-profits people; to boom the self-reliance of groups in assembly their own meals wishes; and to sell complete responses to nearby food, farm, and nutrition problems.

References

Ashton, J. R., Middleton, J., & Lang, T. (2014). Open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron on food poverty in the UK. The Lancet, 383(9929), 1631.

Brinkman, H. J., de Pee, S., Sanogo, I., Subran, L., & Bloem, M. W. (2009). High food prices and the global financial crisis have reduced access to nutritious food and worsened nutritional status and health. The Journal of nutrition, 140(1), 153S- 161S.

Caplan, P. (2017). Win‐win?: Food poverty, food aid and food surplus in the UK today. Anthropology Today, 33(3), 17-22.

Caplan, P. (2016). Big society or broken society?: Food banks in the UK. Anthropology Today, 32(1), 5-9.

Caraher, M., & Coveney, J. (Eds.). (2016). Food poverty and insecurity: International food inequalities. Springer.

Caraher, M., & Cavicchi, A. (2014). Old crises on new plates or old plates for a new crises? Food banks and food insecurity. British Food Journal, 116(9).

Cooper, N., Purcell, S., & Jackson, R. (2014). Below the breadline: The relentless rise of food poverty in Britain.

Cudjoe, G., Breisinger, C., & Diao, X. (2010). Local impacts of a global crisis: Food price transmission, consumer welfare and poverty in Ghana. Food Policy, 35(4), 294- 302.

Downing, E., Kennedy, S., & Fell, M. (2014). Food banks and food poverty. House of Commons Library SN06657, 9.

European Commission. Directorate-General for Employment, European Commission. Directorate-General for Employment, & Social Affairs. Unit A. (2000). Employment in Europe 2000(Vol. 7). Office for Official Publications.

Garthwaite, K. A., Collins, P. J., & Bambra, C. (2015). Food for thought: An ethnographic study of negotiating ill health and food insecurity in a UK foodbank. Social science & medicine, 132, 38-44.

Hagenaars, A. J. (2017). The definition and measurement of poverty. In Economic Inequality and Poverty: International Perspectives (pp. 148-170). Routledge.

Headey, D., & Fan, S. (2008). Anatomy of a crisis: the causes and consequences of surging food prices. Agricultural economics, 39, 375-391.

Howard, L. L. (2011). Does food insecurity at home affect non-cognitive performance at school? A longitudinal analysis of elementary student classroom behavior. Economics of Education Review, 30(1), 157-176.

Dowler, E. A., & O’Connor, D. (2012). Rights-based approaches to addressing food poverty and food insecurity in Ireland and UK. Social science & medicine, 74(1), 44-51.

Loopstra, R., Reeves, A., Taylor-Robinson, D., Barr, B., McKee, M., & Stuckler, D. (2015). Austerity, sanctions, and the rise of food banks in the UK. Bmj, 350, h1775.

Kirkpatrick, S. I., McIntyre, L., & Potestio, M. L. (2010). Child hunger and long-term adverse consequences for health. Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine, 164(8), 754-762.

Main, G., & Bradshaw, J. (2016). Child poverty in the UK: Measures, prevalence and intra-household sharing. Critical Social Policy, 36(1), 38-61.

O'Connell, R., Owen, C., Padley, M., Simon, A., & Brannen, J. (2019). Which types of family are at risk of food poverty in the UK? A relative deprivation approach. Social Policy and Society, 18(1), 1-18.

O'Connor, N., Farag, K., & Baines, R. (2016). What is food poverty? A conceptual framework. British Food Journal, 118(2), 429-449.

Purdam, K., Garratt, E. A., & Esmail, A. (2016). Hungry? Food insecurity, social stigma and embarrassment in the UK. Sociology, 50(6), 1072-1088.

Slopen, N., Fitzmaurice, G., Williams, D. R., & Gilman, S. E. (2010). Poverty, food insecurity, and the behavior for childhood internalizing and externalizing disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49(5), 444-452.

Sonnino, R., & Hanmer, O. (2016). Beyond food provision: Understanding community growing in the context of food poverty. Geoforum, 74, 213-221.

Spencer, N. (2018). Poverty and child health. CRC Press.

Taylor-Robinson, D., Rougeaux, E., Harrison, D., Whitehead, M., Barr, B., & Pearce, A. (2013). The rise of food poverty in the UK. Bmj, 347, f7157.

Von Grebmer, K., Saltzman, A., Birol, E., Wiesman, D., Prasai, N., Yin, S., ... & Sonntag, A. (2014). 2014 Global Hunger Index: The challenge of hidden hunger. IFPRI books.

Von Braun, J., Ahmed, A., Asenso-Okyere, K., Fan, S., Gulati, A., Hoddinott, J., ... & van Rheenen, T. (2008). High food prices: the what, who, and how of proposed policy actions (p. 12). Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.