Food security, nutrition and health of food bank attendees in an English city: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Food banks in contemporary Britain are feeding record numbers of people. Little is known about attendees level of food insecurity, background diet quality or health. We surveyed 112 food bank attendees. Over 50% had experienced food shortage with hunger on a weekly basis or more often. Obesity and mental health problems were prevalent in women. Diet quality was poor, with energy, protein, fibre, iron and calcium intakes inadequate, while saturated fat and sugars intake were disproportionate. Women had poorer diet quality than men. Such patterns may lead to ill health.

The prevalence, severity and experience of food insecurity in Australia: An investigation of food aid use

“…Given that many food aid providers rely on donated or surplus foods, the quality of the food provided can be low (Mukoya, McKay, & Dunn, 2017; Simmet, Depa, Tinnemann, & Stroebele‐Benschop, 2017). Other studies have found that people reliant on food aid in the United Kingdom were undernourished, but paradoxically also overweight or obese as a result of experiencing periods of ‘plenty and want’, embedding a reliance on high energy dense foods and overeating in times of plenty (Barker, Halliday, Mak, Wottge, & Russell, 2019). While food aid services can provide temporary relief from hunger, food security advocates continue to question the effectiveness and appropriateness of providing food aid through charitable means (Poppendieck, 2014; Riches & Tarasuk, 2014), particularly as charitable organisations are often unable to meet the ongoing needs of those they serve (McKay & Dunn, 2015; Pollard et al., 2018).…”

Feeding the food insecure in Britain: learning from the 2020 COVID-19 crisis

“…The failings of Britain’s welfare state to prevent hunger and ensure good nutrition amongst economically vulnerable people during the second decade of the twenty-first Century has been documented (Barker et al 2019 ; Dowler and Lambie-Mumford 2015 ; Lambie-Mumford 2019 ; Loopstra et al 2015 ). Evidence suggests that lack of financial security, including unemployment, household debt and weaknesses in the state benefits system, is a major driver of food insecurity (Davis and Baumberg Geiger 2016 ; Garthwaite et al 2015 ; Lambie-Mumford and Loopstra 2020 ; May et al 2020 ).…”

“…In short, before the current COVID-19 crisis the voluntary sector, comprising a disjointed array of charities, church organisations, not-for-profit community businesses and local community groups, has been the supplier of emergency food welfare in Britain. There is no explicit state support for people who experience acute food shortage; people often endure temporal cycles of “plenty” and “want” managing on a modicum of food of dubious nutritional quality in the lead up to a food crisis (Barker et al 2019 ). The only direct state food aid operating is child-focused.…”

Food insecurity among older adults in the U.S.: The role of mortgage borrowing

“…Our approach to modeling mortgage borrowing accounts for household characteristics known to influence food insecurity among older adults, such as financial characteristics (Barker et al, 2019; Pirrie et al, 2020; Russell et al, 2014; Wang et al, 2015), household structure (Park et al, 2019), and location of residence (Dean & Sharkey, 2011). Further, we control for characteristics of the individual respondent.…”