Five million people in the UK living in households with children under 18 have experienced food insecurity since the lockdown started.
Figures released by Food Foundation the 1.8 million of these experienced food insecurity solely due to the lack of supply of food in shops, leaving 3.2 million people (11% of households) suffering from food insecurity due to other issues such as loss of income or isolation.
This is double the level of food insecurity among households with children reported by the Food Standards Agency in 2018 (5.7%).
These figures come as the Trussell Trust reports an 81% increase in people needing support from food banks at the end of March compared with the same time last year. Demand from children for food bank services has increased by 121%.
As a result of this, children have been directly affected. Parents have not been able to shield them from food insecurity. The parents of two million children said they had experienced one or more forms of food insecurity, and more than 200,000 children have had to skip meals because their family couldn’t access sufficient food during lockdown.
Children are at higher risk in families with members who are self-isolating, medically vulnerable members, single parents, where a child has a disability, and in large households. They also found that households which included NHS workers and their children had an elevated risk.
31% of children entitled to free school meals (0.5million) are still not getting any substitute; and of the 621,000 children who were accessing free breakfast clubs before the crisis, only 136,000 are getting a substitute.
Half (46%) of the food insecure households in our sample have lost income as a result of the crisis and many have not found substitutes for this lost income.
The Foundation say that the Government should be exploring all possible routes for financial support to households with children – child benefit, universal credit, welfare assistance grants – and removing the barriers to getting this support (like the 5 week wait on Universal Credit, benefit cap, child limit etc) quickly.
Child benefit is a prime candidate: 75% of food insecure households in our sample receive it.
