Food poverty 'now a health emergency'

[Northerner]

Food poverty in the UK has now become such a big problem that it should be seen as a "public health emergency", a group of health experts says.

In a letter to the British Medical Journal, six leading public health figures warned poor nutrition could lead to a host of problems.

It comes amid reports that people are struggling to feed themselves.

The UK Red Cross has started asking for food donations for the first time since World War Two.

And in October the Trussell Trust, which runs 400 food banks, said the numbers of people it was helping had tripled to 350,000 in the past year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25201759

The government should be ashamed.

 

[trophywench]

Look - I am genuinely sorry for people really on their beam uppers.

But I do begrudge (at least some of) them having 42ins flat screen tellies and them and their kids having all the latest electronic crap, phones etc and the parents smoking .....

Priorities ......

The ones that don't have those things, and have actually lived within their means prior to their current situation, deserve help with everything.

 

[FM001]

The government should be ashamed.

True right, wife got stopped by the Red Cross on the way out of Tesco's asking for a food donation.

 

[ypauly]

The government should be ashamed.

I would like to know what they could do different in relation to our new found poverty given the levels of debt we are already in as a nation.


I think that the last government should be ashamed and that this one is doing the best it can in the most difficult financial circumstances since the great depression.



incidentally I don't see the growth of food banks as an absolute measure of poverty as giving things away for free will always grow in popularity.

I am sure as a nation we are getting poorer though but as we have a mountain of debt that was going to be a certainty.



Eds so called cost of living crisis and fuels bills has been a big recent theme yet he said 3 years ago that those in fuel poverty would still have to pay more.
http://order-order.com/2013/10/10/g...crisis-admits-your-bills-would-rise/#comments


The country is in deep trouble that will take a generation or more to put right no matter who is in charge.