UK Food Poverty

Latest Food Poverty news for the UK, including breaking updates on rising food prices, the cost of living, free school meals, and food banks.

Food poverty in the UK has been a concerning issue characterised by inadequate access to affordable and nutritious food for a significant number of individuals and households. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, cold snaps and droughts in Africa and Europe, and labour shortages which left some crops unharvested, have exacerbated the problem, destabilising the global grain and fertiliser markets and increasing import costs. In May 2023, the ONS reported that the annual rate of UK food and non-alcoholic beverage prices inflation increased to 19.1% in the 12 months to March 2023 – its fastest pace for over 40 years.

The numbers of people who fell into food poverty in the UK rose accordingly. This has been evidenced by the rise in food bank use from 2.18 million users in 2021/22 to 2.98 million in 2022/23. The Trussell Trust, an NGO which runs food banks, reported that over 760,000 people were forced to use Trussell Trust food banks for the first time between April 2022 and March 2023. Similarly, food poverty can be seen in the number of students eligible for free school meals. This rose to 23.8% of all pupils in January 2023, equivalent to over 2 million students, and a 40% increase from before the pandemic. These numbers are much higher than the under 26,000 reported food bank users in 2008/09 and 1.1 million free school meal children in 2017/18, and serves as a testament to the scale of this social problem in the United Kingdom.