What’s driving the hunger crisis since the UK COVID-19 lockdown?On the 11thApril2020, the Food Foundation reported the results of their commissioned YouGov survey which foundthat more thanthreemillion people reported going hungry in the first three weeks ofthe UK’s COVID-19lockdown.1This report explores what is driving hunger in the population at this time, asking, has the COVID-19 lockdown exacerbated food insecurity among those who regularly struggle to afford enough food, created new economic vulnerability on account of loss of work and income and the loss of free school meals for children, or created new vulnerability because people are self-isolating and unable to get the food they need?Key findings•The number of adults who are food insecure in the Britain is estimated to havequadrupled under the COVID-19 lockdown. •A lack of food in shops alone explained about 40% of food insecurity experiences since the COVID-19 lockdown, but not all households were equally affected: adults with disabilities and adults with children were particularly vulnerable.•Consistent with national monitoring data on food insecurity, groups at risk of poverty are at risk of food insecurityat this time. These include adults who are unemployed, adults with disabilities, adults with children, and Black and Ethnic Minority groups.But,self-isolation and a lack of foodin shopshas layered on additional risk offood insecurity for these groups.•Income losses arising from the COVID-19 crisis have had an immediate impact on food insecurity. All adults reporting income losses of greater than 25% are at significantly heightened risk of food insecurity, includingadults with background socio-economic risk of food insecurity as well as those typically found not at risk.•Adults with children eligible for free school meals are at heightened risk of food insecurity arising from a lack of money.•After accounting for background socio-economic factors, all adults who reported self-isolating, whether for 7-14 days or 12 weeks, are at heightenedrisk of going without food because they cannot go out and do not have other means of acquiring it. Adults who are less than 70 are at particularly heightenedrisk but the over 70s are also at higher risk compared to those who are not self-isolating.•Adults who are under 70 and self-isolating and adults self-isolating for 7-14 days are also at heightened risk of food insecurity arising from a lack of money for food.•Taken together, these report findings show:oVulnerability to food insecurity has worsened for the economically vulnerable under COVID-19 conditions.oThe COVID-19 crisis has also created new economic vulnerability for people who experiencingincome lossesand self-isolation.oIn addition to economic vulnerability, self-isolation and a lack of food in shops has created new dimensionsof food insecurity in the UK: people being unable to acquire the food they need because they cannot go out and/or because food supplies are not available.1For press release, see https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Hunger-release-FINAL.pdf
BackgroundHow many people regularly struggle to afford enough food in Britain? Approximately20% of adults(~10 million)in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland face food insecurityannually.[1]These estimates come from data collected by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). By this measure, food insecurity refers to people living with insecure accessto foodon account of financial vulnerability, meaning, they all reported, at minimum,having experienced anxiety about not having enough to eat,experiences of running out of food, or not eating balanced meals, all be because of a lack of money for food. More severe experiences, including running out of food or skipping meals because of a lack of money food, affect about 10% of adults, and the most severe experiences, which mean adults have gone without food, affect about 4% of adults.2There are some key groups who are more likely to experience food insecurity than others, includingthose with incomes that are in the very bottom of the income distribution, people who are unemployed or not working for other reasons, and people with disabilities.[2]These are groups that are highest risk of the most severe forms of food insecurity as well. Other groups are also at higher riskof less severe food insecurity in particular.These include adults with childrenand adults from Black, Asian and MinorityEthnicgroups.[2]Pensionersexperience lower risk of food insecurity when it is measured using this economic indicator,[2]though qualitative research among elderly people have found that some experience both economic and physical barriers to accessing sufficient amounts of food.[3]This report explores howthe COVID-19 crisis has changed vulnerability to food insecurity by examining and comparing characteristics associated with different forms of food insecurity and comparing these to whatis known about risk of food insecurity in the population before the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodologyThis analysis uses data from the Food Foundation’s commissioned YouGov poll which ran over 7-9April 2020.3The survey included a total of 4,343 adults aged 18 and overfrom across Great Britain. It was completed online and asked respondents about experiences of food insecurity including: (1) eating smaller meals or skipping meals; (2)being hungry but being unable to eat; and (3)not eating for a whole day, because they could not afford food or because they could not get access to food. Anyonewho responded to one or more of these questions affirmatively was classed as food insecure.These indicators were adapted from the United StatesDepartment of Agriculture’s Food Security Survey module,[4]which is used to measure individual and household-level food insecurity in many high-income countries, including the UK.Normally, these questions are solely groundedin a lack of financial access to food; in light of concerns about food supply issues in shops and other worries about individuals being unable to access food on account of isolation, the additional clause “because you could not get access to food”was added. Respondents who answered one or more of food insecurity questions affirmatively were then asked whether this wasfor any of the following reasons: (1) they did not have enough money for food; (2) the shops did not have the food they needed; (3) theycould not go out and did not have any other way to get the food we needed; or (4) forother reasons. 2Author’s analysis of Food and You Wave 5data, available from https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/.3See press release here: https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Hunger-release-FINAL.pdf
