Food Poverty in UK - Google Drive

8/12/2019 Food Poverty in UK - Google Drive

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Food poverty in UK has reached levelof 'public health emergency', warnexperts

Hunger in Britain has reached the level of a public health emergency and theGovernment may be covering up theextent to which austerity and welfarecuts are adding to the problem, leadingexperts have said.

In a letter to the British Medical Journal , a

group of doctors and senior academics fromthe Medical Research Council and twoleading universities said that the effect of Government policies on vulnerablepeoples ability to afford food needed to beurgently monitored .


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embarrassing for ministers.

Because the Government has delayed thepublication of research it commissionedinto the rise of emergency food aid in theUK, we can only speculate that the causeis related to the rising cost of living and

increasingly austere welfare reforms, thepublic health experts write.

The authors of the letter, who include DrDavid Taylor-Robinson and ProfessorMargaret Whitehead of LiverpoolUniversitys Department of Public Health,say that malnutrition can have along-lasting impact (effect) on health,particularly among children.


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Chris Mould, chief executive of theTrussell Trust, the largest national food

bank provider said that one in three of the350,000 people who required a food bank hand-out this year were children.

He called the BMJ letter a timely

warning and criticised the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) for keeping itsreport into the problem under wraps .

The report was commissioned by theDepartment for Environment Food andRural Affairs (Defra) in February, and wascompleted by an academic at Warwick University. However, publication has beenstalled .


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Weve sought (to seek) to engage withthe DWP in order to share our data and

share our experience, with a view toexploring what practical action could betaken to ease the problem, Mr Mould toldThe Independent . Weve had refusals ,letters saying they do not want to talk to us. We find that deeply disappointing .

We want to see that research. It wascommissioned by Government. Theinformation/data was pulled together by

a highly reputable academic and we wantto see what it says. We understand that thereason it has not been published is thatDWP has queried aspects of the data in

it and has been preventing its publicationfor months. That, we think, is notacceptable .


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In their letter, Dr Taylor-Robinson,Professor Whitehead and colleagues citefigures recently released by theGovernment which revealed a surge inthe number of malnutrition cases diagnosed

at English hospitals since the recession upfrom 3,161 in 2008/09 to 5,499 in 2012/13.They also draw attention to reports fromthe Institute for Fiscal Studies which founda decrease in the number of calories

purchased by families, as well assubstitution with unhealthier foods,especially in families with young children.


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Malnutrition in children is particularly worrying because exposures duringsensitive periods can have lifelongeffects , increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and other adult

chronic diseases, they write. Access to anadequate food supply is the most basic of human needs and rights.

A government spokesperson said that theCoalition had help[ed] families with thecost of living [by] increasing the tax-freepersonal allowance to 10,000, freezingcouncil tax and freezing fuel duty .


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A Defra spokesperson said that the food aidreport would be published after a

necessary review and quality assuranceprocess was complete.

But Luciana Berger, Labours shadow minister for public health, said that it was

a national scandal that people weresuffering from malnutrition in the UK.

This shouldnt be happening in 21stcentury Britain , she said. Withhundreds of thousands having to accessemergency food aid, its sadly unsurprising that people are both eatingless and eating less healthily. DavidCameron needs to listen to what the experts

are saying and tackle the cost of livingcrisis driving people into food poverty.


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More than 50,000 people in have signed apetition calling for Parliament to hold a

debate on the causes of food poverty in theUK.

The petition was launched on Monday by the writer and former food bank user Jack

Monroe.In her appeal on the Change.org website,Ms Monroe called on supporters to makepoliticians confront what is happening.

I dont think this is acceptable in theseventh richest country in the world andId really like to know the reasons why itshappening so we can stop it she said.
http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fchange.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFT51tzUvm7F0l23GLY6ZzCgo359Q


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We need to stop turning a blind eye .

The petition has been backed by the Uniteunion and the national food bank charity the Trussell Trust.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli

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Food Poverty in UK - Google Drive

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