Brannen, J

Knight, A

O'Connell, R

UCL Discovery

Child food poverty requires radical long term solutionsThe end of the summer holidays will be a respite for children experiencing holiday hunger. But asRebecca O’Connell and colleagues explain, food poverty is a problem all year roundRebecca O’Connell reader in the sociology of food and families, Julia Brannen professor of sociologyof the family, Abigail Knight lecturer in sociologyThomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education, University College London, UKAt the start of this year’s summer holidays, the UK governmentannounced £2m (€2.2m; $2.6m) of funding for free holidayactivities and meals for disadvantaged families.1 Children andfamilies minister Nadhim Zahawi noted that: “For most pupils,the end of the school summer term signals the start of holidays,days out, and a chance to make memories with friends andfamily. Other families, who might rely on the support providedby schools, are not so lucky.”Luck has nothing to do with it. Children are going hungry in“breadline Britain”2—not only during the holidays but all yearround—because they are structurally disadvantaged by ashrinking welfare state and a government that refuses to takeresponsibility for the health and wellbeing of its children. Food“solutions” like the above initiative meet an immediate needbut cannot solve food poverty; rather, they risk furtherstigmatising and excluding families from “ordinary livingpatterns.”3Having enough to eat of an adequate quantity and quality haslong been a minimal expectation of what it is to live in a Westerncountry. But our study, Families and Food in Hard Times,4found that there were families in the UK on low incomes whowere unable to feed themselves properly and others who werebarely able to do so. Reflecting the findings of previous studies,5some parents often went without food so that their children didnot go hungry, while in other families both parent and childsuffered.The harmful consequences of insufficient food or food of poornutritional value, particularly for children, are well established6and have immediate7 and long term8 implications. These includepoor growth; overweight and obesity; and the growing incidenceof coronary heart disease, type II diabetes, and cancer.Suboptimal diets and food habits such as skipping meals9 arealso associated with poor cognition and lower academicachievement. Moreover, food poverty has social andpsychological dimensions that are especially important forchildren.10 While parents’ sacrifices can protect their childrenfrom food shortages, the indirect effects of food povertypenetrate deeply into the “emotional heartland” of children’spersonal and family lives.11Additional funds to help disadvantaged children with “food andfun” over school holidays are welcome. But given the scale ofthe problem, this solution goes nowhere near far enough andcannot tackle the underlying factors that lead to the food povertyof children and their families.A week after the government announced funding for additionalschool holiday provision, it was reported12 that it iscommissioning research into the relation between its ownpolicies and the rise in food aid. Yet there is plenty of evidencealready that this growth is the predictable result13 of policiesthat have taken away from those who had least to begin with.Food aid, including school holiday provision, is an inadequateresponse that is “susceptible to four particular challenges: it canbe inaccessible, unreliable, unaccountable, and sociallyunacceptable.”14To tackle the food poverty of children and families, thegovernment should make use of research on budget standards15to ensure that wages and benefits, in combination, are adequatefor a socially acceptable standard of living and eating,16 whichrecognises the fundamental role of food in health and socialinclusion.In the UK, we are living in a period of deep political andeconomic uncertainty. Given the UK’s exit from the EuropeanUnion,17 the implementation of further cuts to welfare benefits,and rising inflation (including food prices), the plight of familieswho are struggling to feed themselves is unlikely to improve.Food poverty and its effects on children’s and young people’sphysical and emotional wellbeing is a matter of grave concern.Yet in the face of piecemeal solutions and government neglect,the outlook is set to remain bleak.Competing interests: We have read and understood BMJ policy on declaration ofinterests and declare the following interests: none.Funding: Rebecca O’Connell is coauthor, with Julia Brannen, of Food, Families,and Work (2016) and principal investigator of the study of Families and Food inHard Times. This research project was funded by the European Research Councilunder the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement 337977.j.brannen@ucl.ac.ukFor personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribeBMJ 2018;362:k3608 doi: 10.1136/bmj.k3608 (Published 28 August 2018) Page 1 of 2Views and ReviewsVIEWS AND REVIEWS on 28 September 2018 by guest. Protected by copyright.http://www.bmj.com/BMJ: first published as 10.1136/bmj.k3608 on 28 August 2018. Downloaded from 1 Department for Education. Free holiday activities and meals for disadvantaged families.27 July 2018. www.gov.uk/government/news/free-holiday-activities-and-meals-for-disadvantaged-families.2 Lansley S, Mack J. Breadline Britain: the rise of mass poverty. Oneworld Publications,2015.3 Townsend P. Poverty in the United Kingdom: a survey of household resources andstandards of living. Penguin, 1979.4 Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education, University College London.Families and food in hard times. https://foodinhardtimes.org.5 Gordon D, Mack J, Lansley S, et al. The impoverishment of the UK: poverty and socialexclusion UK, first results: living standards. 2013. www.poverty.ac.uk/pse-research/pse-uk-reports.6 Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Child Poverty Action Group. Poverty andchild health: views from the frontline. 2017. www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/poverty-child-health-views-frontline.7 Kirkpatrick SI, Tarasuk V. Food insecurity is associated with nutrient inadequacies amongCanadian adults and adolescents. J Nutr 2008;138:604-12. 10.1093/jn/138.3.604 182873748 Kirkpatrick SI, McIntyre L, Potestio ML. Child hunger and long-term adverse consequencesfor health. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2010;164:754-62.10.1001/archpediatrics.2010.117 206791679 Hoyland A, Dye L, Lawton CL. A systematic review of the effect of breakfast on thecognitive performance of children and adolescents. Nutr Res Rev 2009;22:220-43.10.1017/S0954422409990175 1993078710 Fram MS, Bernal J, Frongillo EA. The measurement of food insecurity among children:review of literature and concept note, Innocenti Working Paper. UNICEF Office ofResearch. 2016. www.researchgate.net/publication/294578670_The_measurement_of_food_insecurity_among_children_Review_of_literature_and_concept_note.11 Ridge T. The everyday costs of poverty in childhood: a review of qualitative researchexploring the lives and experiences of low income children in the UK. Child Soc2011;25:73-8410.1111/j.1099-0860.2010.00345.x.12 Osborne H, Hopkins N. Revealed: ministers' plan to research effect of policies on foodbank use. Guardian. 1 August 2018. www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/01/revealed-ministers-plan-to-research-effect-of-policies-on-food-bank-use.13 Cooper V, Whyte D. The Violence of Austerity. Pluto Press, 201710.2307/j.ctt1pv8988.14 Lambie-Mumford H, Sims L. Charitable breakfast clubs and holiday hunger projects inthe UK. Children & Society special issue. 2018;32:244-54.15 Davis A, Hirsch D, Padley M, Shepherd C. A minimum income standard for the UK2008-2018: continuity and change. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 2 July 2018. www.jrf.org.uk/report/minimum-income-standard-uk-2018.16 O’Connell RE, Owen C, Padley M, Simon A, Brannen J. Which types of family are at riskof food poverty in the UK? A relative deprivation approach. Social Policy and Society.2018. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/bitstream/2134/28174/1/669%20Revised%20Article23.11.17Prepublicationfinal.pdf.17 Lang T, Lewis T, Marsden T, Millstone E. Feeding Britain: food security after Brexit. FoodResearch Collaboration, Centre for Food Policy. 23 July 2018. http://foodresearch.org.uk/publications/feeding-britain-food-security-after-brexit.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not alreadygranted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissionsFor personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribeBMJ 2018;362:k3608 doi: 10.1136/bmj.k3608 (Published 28 August 2018) Page 2 of 2VIEWS AND REVIEWS on 28 September 2018 by guest. Protected by copyright.http://www.bmj.com/BMJ: first published as 10.1136/bmj.k3608 on 28 August 2018. Downloaded from 

Child food poverty requires radical long term solutions

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Child food poverty requires radical long term solutions

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