Food for thought

End Hunger UK

In a new report on children, food and nutrition for World Food Day (16 October) UNICEF warned that an alarmingly high number of children are suffering the consequences of poor diets and a food system that is failing them. Almost two in three children between six months and two years of age are not fed food that supports their rapidly growing bodies and brains. This puts them at risk of poor brain development, weak learning, low immunity, increased infections and, in many cases, death. If children eat poorly, they live poorly," said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. "Millions of children subsist on an unhealthy diet because they simply do not have a better choice.

In the lead up to World Food Day 33 religious, associates, third order members and friends gathered in Euston, London for a conference on 'Hunger, malnutrition and food poverty in the UK and globally' entitled, 'Food for thought'. The morning was led by Callum Northcote, Global Nutrition Policy Officer at RESULTS UK who shared some of the shocking facts of Undernutrition, (hidden hunger caused by a lack of essential nutrients).

• 149 million children are stunted, or too short for their age,
• 50 million children are wasted, or too thin for their height,
• 340 million children - or 1 in 2 - suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and nutrients such as vitamin A and iron.

Malnutrition takes many forms including undernutrition. Undernutrition is when people do not receive, or their bodies cannot keep, the vital nutrients they need, and it is the cause of half of all under-five deaths. Undernutrition weakens the body and the immune system, undermining an individual's ability to fight illness, infection and disease. Without good nutrition, there cannot be good health. Without good nutrition, preventable deaths will continue, meaning investments in other areas of health will be undermined. Health and nutrition interventions lie at the heart of efforts to tackle global poverty.

See: RESULTS UK Brick by Brick report: www.results.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/Results%20Brick%20by%20Brick%20report.pdf

Undernutrition is sexist as in many parts of the world women eat 'last and least' which has a severe impact on women's health and subsequently on the health of their children. Good nutrition is essential in the first 1,000 days of a child's life (from conception to their second birthday). Globally one in three women of child bearing age are anaemic and the rates are rising. Anaemia has a variety of causes, but around 50% of cases are caused by iron deficiency.

The first part of the afternoon was led by Annie Connolly, Community Campaigner at End Hunger UK (a coalition of more than 40 national charities, frontline organisations, faith groups, academics and individuals working to end hunger and poverty in the UK).

The UK pledged in 2015 to end hunger by 2030, but no plan for how that will happen has been developed. If the target is to be achieved, a Government-led strategy across all departments is essential. The End Hunger UK campaign says politicians must listen to the experiences and insights of people who have been caught in a rising tide of poverty and debt, and says the national target must be to halve household food insecurity by 2025, as a step to ending it by 2030.

Annie quoted Niall Cooper from Church Action on poverty who said, "The UK has no shortage of food. The problem is one of incomes - too many working and non-working households are being hamstrung by insufficient wages and a benefits system that does not cover people's essential costs. Charitable emergency food provision has proliferated in the UK in the past decade and large numbers of people have been forced to turn to food aid providers. In the sixth wealthiest nation on the planet, this is simply not right."

We agreed with Annie that: "It cannot be right that so many people across the UK are going hungry, having been swept into poverty by systems beyond their control." We shared information about the projects we are involved in helping to meet the need day to day, but agreed that we need to move beyond sticking-plaster solutions and really tackle the causes of food poverty and hidden hunger in the UK.

Both Callum and Annie helped us to learn how together we can use our voices to influence political decisions that will bring an end to poverty, hunger and food insecurity. We concluded our day with a panel for questions and discussion including the role of climate change in driving food insecurity.

In 2013 many faith based organizations took part in the 'IF campaign' (Enough food for everyone IF…..) which resulted in strong pledges to end undernutrition at the first Nutrition for growth summit in London. This was a seminal moment in nutrition financing, but the UK's current financial commitment to nutrition will expire at the end of 2020. The UK's current financial commitment to nutrition will expire at the end of next year. Now once again the UK Government has a key opportunity in 2020 to put their commitment into action at the Tokyo 2020 Nutrition for Growth Summit. DFID has recently committed to ending preventable deaths of mothers, new-born babies and children in the developing world by 2030, in order to reach that commitment, the UK must view nutrition as one of its priorities and formulate an ambitious plan, backed with the required resources, to prioritize nutrition across all its work, in order to drive down preventable deaths.

Since the Sustainable development goals are for all people, everywhere it is to be hoped that the UK government will really tackle the UK systems that are pushing people into deeper difficulty, so people can escape the clutches of poverty.

FURTHER LINKS

UNICEF report: The State of the World's Children 2019: Children, food and nutrition www.unicef.org/reports/state-of-worlds-children-2019

End Hunger UK: www.endhungeruk.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj9aUuvWe5QIVB1XTCh0sagWvEAAYASAAEgI0pPD_BwE

RESULTS UK: www.results.org.uk/news

World Food Day: www.fao.org/world-food-day