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

Margo Barker; Jean Russell

doi:10.1007/s12571-020-01080-5

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

Food Secur. 2020;12(4):865-870. doi: 10.1007/s12571-020-01080-5. Epub 2020 Jul 13.

Authors

Margo Barker¹, Jean Russell²

Affiliations

¹ Food and Nutrition Group, Sheffield Business School, College of Business, Technology & Engineering, Sheffield Hallam University, Charles Street, Sheffield, S1 1WB UK.
² Corporate Information and Computing Service, University of Sheffield, 10-12 Brunswick Street, Sheffield, S10 2FN UK.

Abstract

The lockdown in Britain has rendered a large proportion of the population economically vulnerable and has at least quadrupled demand for emergency food relief. This paper looks critically at response to the crisis from the government and the voluntary sector with respect to provision of emergency food. In doing so, it has exposed gaps in understanding of the vagaries of the food supply for certain population groups and systemic weaknesses in the current system of emergency food aid. We make recommendations for healthier governmental capacity to react to a food security crisis, better relationships between the government and the voluntary sector, and further research into the dietary constraints of the precariate. Importantly, the social system needs to be responsive to short-term changes in people's income if people are not to fall into food insecurity.

Keywords: COVID-19; Charitable food; Food aid; Food banks; Food poverty; Precarious working.