Tag: food security

Cash-first approach to help with infant food insecurity

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A toolkit for people working with families with infants at risk of food insecurity is promoting cash first responses to allow them to safely, responsively and appropriately feed their babies and helping towards reducing the need for food banks.

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville and Public Health Minister Jenni Minto visited Cranhill Development Trust’s Baby and Toddler group in Glasgow yesterday to see the help on offer to families with infants who may be facing financial pressure.

They met with local families attending the group to hear about the impact of cross-Government support for families in the cost of living crisis.

Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “All children have the right to the best possible health and an adequate standard of living, which includes appropriate nutrition to meet their developmental needs. These resources are aimed at ensuring that no baby in Scotland is left without the food they need to grow and thrive.

“We continue to allocate around £3 billion each year to a range of actions which help to tackle poverty and mitigate the impacts of the cost of living crisis on households.

“We will do all we can to reduce child poverty while mitigating UK Government austerity – but we could go much further if policies made at Westminster were not actively working against us.”

UK Government’s response fails to address ‘very pressing issue’ of food insecurity

Westminster’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has published the Government’s response to its second Covid-19 and Food Supply report.

Despite repeated recommendations made in the report to address high levels of food insecurity, the Committee express disappointment in the Government’s ‘lacklustre’ response.

The report, published in April, scrutinised food supply and food security in the UK in the six months following the publication of the Committee’s original Covid-19 and Food Supply report in July 2020.

Despite now being urged twice by the Committee to appoint a new Minster for Food Security and consult on a national ‘right to food’ in England, the Government’s response fails to commit to either.

With many in the UK currently experiencing food insecurity as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, the cross-party Committee had urged the Government to work cross-departmentally, conducting an annual food security report and ensuring that everyone, and especially the most vulnerable, have access to enough affordable nutritious food.

Neil Parish MP, Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, said: “In April, we urged the Government to maintain the momentum gained during the covid crisis to keep society’s most vulnerable people fed.

“Despite our Committee making clear recommendations, the Government’s response is lacklustre, kicking the can down the road on long-term actions which would tackle the very pressing issue of food insecurity.

“A great deal of expectation now rests on Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy – something my Committee will be keeping a close eye on. We hope he will be more ambitious and that the Government will finally recognises the seriousness- and urgency- of the matter.”