Inconvenience food
The struggle to eat well on a low income
Caroline Hitchman Ian Christie Michelle Harrison Tim Lang
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First published in 2002 by Demos The Mezzanine Contents Elizabeth House 39 York Road London SE1 7NQ
About the authors 7 © Demos 2002 All rights reserved Acknowledgements 8
Executive summary 9 ISBN 1 84180 050 3 Typeset by Discript Ltd 1. Hungry in a consumer society 13 The policy context 15 Research methodology 16
The field sites 18 Patterns of food consumption 20
2. The many dimensions of food poverty 23 Income and budgeting 25
Transport and mobility 31 Families and children 36 Elderly people 39
The local shop 40 Credit and cutbacks 43 Health and liveability 46
Skills and learning 47 Ethnic minorities 48 Diet and attitudes to healthy eating 49
3. Developing a policy response 52 Four guiding principles 54 Headline recommendations 56
References 61
Further reading 63
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About the authors
Caroline Hitchman is a public health nutritionist who has worked as
a researcher for Demos, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Thames Valley University. She has also worked for Action Against Hunger in East Timor as the nutrition programme manager.
She is currently working in health promotion for Newham Primary Care Trust.
Ian Christie is a researcher and consultant on sustainable development, and a member of the Demos Advisory Council. He is associate director of the Local Futures Group.
Michelle Harrison is a Demos associate and an honorary research fellow at the University of Birmingham.
Tim Lang has been Professor of Food Policy at Thames Valley University’s Centre for Food Policy since 1994. He is chair of Sustain, the UK’s 105
Food NGO Alliance, a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine and a vice president of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.
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Acknowledgments Executive summary
We are grateful to the Tedworth Charitable Trust for their generous This book is about food poverty in contemporary Britain. Food poverty support of this project. can be defined as the difficulty of securing access to an adequate diet Thanks to the steering committee for their support and guidance: on a low income. But beneath this relatively simple definition lies a very Elizabeth Dowler, Martin Caraher, Meg Abdy, Hester Marriot, Ken complex form of social exclusion. Food poverty is difficult to measure,
Worpole, John Beaumont and Jacqui Webster. and in its modern form most commonly consists of nutritional rather We would particularly like to thank Sue Dubois and Tim Orsen who than calorific inadequacy. It is caused by the interaction of several housed and befriended us in the field sites; the environmental health factors, ranging from income and family structure through to transport and planning departments at the field sites which gave us the data availability and the nature of modern food retailing. and support we needed to carry out the field work; Ben Jupp and Based upon detailed fieldwork in inner London and the rural Annie Creasey who supported and advised us throughout; and all the shires, this pamphlet unpacks the constituent elements of food individuals and families who allowed us into their homes and to poverty. In particular, it builds on earlier work highlighting the prob- share parts of their lives. lem of ‘food deserts’, where changing retail geography has resulted We would also like to thank David Barling, Liz Castledine and Mike in a dearth of food shops in low-income areas. Our research shows
Nelson. that the problem of access to an adequate diet is influenced by much Finally, thanks to Eddie Gibb and James Wilsdon at Demos for edit- more than the proximity of shops. The picture is more complicated: ing the pamphlet and guiding the project to a successful conclusion. in a neighbourhood with few shops, households living in the same
street can have very different levels of access and patterns of shop- ping. The geography of food poverty cannot be simply drawn on a map.
As our research shows, achieving a nutritious diet on a low income requires extraordinary levels of persistence, flexibility and awareness. There are, however, common themes within the diverse stories of the
people who took part in the study – to do with problems of mobility as well as time and familial constraints. It is these that form the foun- dations of the policy response that we propose. In a society where food
plays an increasingly important part in our culture, socialising and
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Inconvenience food Executive summary
quality of life, we should be able to prevent the forms of food poverty 3. Inject a new social dimension into the food supply chain. which this report describes. Government does not seem to recognise that the rapid changes in In the final section, we outline a strategy for making the costs and the food supply chain over recent decades are part of the problem. injustices of food poverty more clearly recognised, and developing The silence of the Curry Commission on social exclusion and health policies and practices to eliminate it. We outline a framework that has not helped. The government should develop a long-term frame- will require joint action between the public, private and voluntary work for a socially and environmentally sustainable food supply sectors at the local level, together with a renewed commitment from chain, accompanied by policies and targets that will implement this national government. Our headline recommendations include: vision by 2020. 1. Identify public institutions at all levels with an influence on food poverty, 4. Renew and revitalise our national food culture.
and encourage these to adopt a new strategy. The government should establish a clear policy objective of ensur- At a national level, there needs to be a rebalancing of the priorities ing that everyone – not just people on low income – has the confi- of the Food Standards Agency, to take greater account of public inter- dence, knowledge and skills necessary to achieve a good diet.
est concerns over access to nutrition and social inclusion. At a DEFRA, DoH and the Department for Education and Skills should regional and local level, Food Forums should be set up to act as gate- develop a new strategy for public education about food. The govern- ways for local initiatives and to enable the public interest to inform ment should also consider setting up a national Health Promotion
and influence the food supply chain. Directors of public health, now Agency, which could be funded by a levy on the advertising of fatty, located in Primary Care Trusts, together with chief executives of highly processed and fast foods, with the revenues to be spent on local authorities should jointly take the lead on setting up these new promoting fruit and vegetables.
Food Forums. 5. Ensure that low-income communities have a voice in the planning process. 2. Create information systems to deliver an annual audit of food and social The large food retailers already have enormous influence within the exclusion. UK’s planning system, which is likely to be increased by the current
An international system of data collection on food insecurity, known planning review. There is a real danger that this will intensify the as the Food Insecurity Vulnerability Mapping System (FIVIMS), was set problem of food poverty, and the Office of the Deputy Prime up after the 1996 World Food Summit, in Rome. Currently over 50 Minister, which is leading the current planning review, must take
countries produce data on food insecurity at the national level. The food poverty into account in any new legislation. People on low majority of these are developing countries but three members of the incomes must be given a stronger voice within the planning system, European Union – Belgium, Germany and Italy – have a commitment so that issues such as access to shops are not sidelined.
to FIVIMS. We recommend that the UK Government set up a national During the twelve months of fieldwork, our research included in- FIVIMS, in line with international criteria. This should be accompa- depth interviews with over a hundred families, accompanying many on nied by new indicators for food policy, including: the price of key shopping trips and encouraging the compilation of detailed food shop-
foods, distance from shops, density of food shops and access to infor- ping, expenditure and consumption diaries, which were kept over fort- mation about healthy eating. However, this is not about mapping food nightly periods. We conducted group interviews at the community deserts per se, so much as identifying areas of vulnerability at the local level, interviewed representatives from the public and private sectors
level. To monitor progress, the Chief Medical Officer, together with with regard to retail provision and planning, and undertook ‘policy the Food Standards Agency, the Department for the Environment, panels’ to work through the implications of our findings. We are Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department of Health (DoH), indebted to all who gave their time, energy and expertise.
should undertake an annual audit of food and social exclusion.
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1. Hungry in a consumer society
Since the beginning of the 1980s, household disposable income in 1 Britain has increased by an average of around 60 per cent. Compared to a generation ago, we live like kings, with more consumer goods, more holidays and more leisure than our grandparents would have imagined
possible. In an average high street supermarket we can choose from thousands of food lines; in an out-of-town superstore, we can literally buy the kitchen sink.
Mass affluence, the globalisation of retail supply systems and changes to employment patterns and household structure, have all contributed to a revolution in the food we eat. Pasta has replaced
potatoes in the everyday diet; the once exotic kiwi fruit and avocado have become as ordinary as apples. Perhaps most dramatic has been the changing nature of convenience food. Once viewed as the preserve
of TV dinners and lazy mums, convenience food is now the weekday mainstay of the cash rich, time poor masses. Oven-ready and foil- wrapped meals have migrated up market; and the advent of fresh
pasta sauce, pre-washed salad and pre-chopped fruit has created a new form of fast food. At the end of the working day, we don’t so much cook as assemble – mixing quick, streamlined and healthy food in a
way which allows us to feel that we did the cooking. These trends have been accelerated by dramatic social change, in particular the rise of female employment. As women began to experi-
ence increasing time pressure, daily shopping on the local high street became much less attractive. For those with freezers and cars, the out- of-town superstores that mushroomed from the beginning of the
1980s proved irresistible, with their all-under-one-roof, time-efficient
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Inconvenience food Hungry in a consumer society
formats. Retail geography underwent a well rehearsed transforma- cater for a very different segment of society. Time and the food econ- tion. In the decade from 1986, the number of superstores increased omy have moved on, but the poorest in British society remain from 457 to 1102, while the number of independent stores declined disadvantaged. 2 by almost 40 per cent during the same period. There is little doubt that these changes have benefited (at least from a consumerist per- The policy context spective) the 70 per cent of British society that can be referred to as The workings of the food economy provide a clear window on the new the ‘mass affluent’. For them, food variety has multiplied, reliability era of inequality in Britain that was ushered in by the 1979 Conservative of supply has improved and the time efficiency of shopping has election victory. The incoming government effectively buried the 1980 increased. In the out-of-town supermarkets, the car boot can be filled Black Report on inequalities in health, which associated the widening with one swipe of the card. health disparities in Britain with diet. It then went on to remove At the same time, the new metro supermarkets, which have prolif- nutritional standards for school meals in the Education Act of 1980. A erated in towns over the past few years, provide the essential stream- few years later, the ‘tightening’ of welfare under the 1986 Social lined shop for hurried urbanites and the growing number of richer Security Act drove thousands more to the brink of food poverty. As single person households. Indeed, for the first time in two decades, in- changing policy on retail development transformed food retail geog- town retail space is growing at a faster pace than out-of-town devel- raphy, the most vulnerable found themselves with less money to spend opment. Food shopping is beginning to take place more frequently, on food and fewer accessible shops to spend it in. with a growth in weekday, top-up shopping. What is now emerging is By 1992, in the Health of the Nation White Paper, the government a truly dichotomous food and cooking culture, with workaday, effi- was forced to realise that the cost of ill health was a serious financial cient assembly foods complemented by leisurely, sociable and expert drain on the state. In policy circles it once more became legitimate to meal preparation at the weekends when more time is available. In the talk of social inequalities in diet. In 1996, the Low Income Project most affluent areas, the shopping parade is returning, with the deli- Team (LIPT) of the inter-departmental Nutrition Task Force spelled out catessen, the wine shop and the organic butcher providing an oppor- the seriousness of the problem. The new food poverty was identified tunity for weekend, unhurried connoisseurship for those with a din- as the result of a complex interplay of social, economic, political, ner party to prepare. planning, cultural and educational forces.
Yet for the poorest in society, the last two decades have told a very This was the situation inherited by New Labour in 1997. The prob- different story. Food poverty – the inability to secure an adequate diet lem had been well documented, but solutions were not yet forthcom- – is certainly not new to British society. What is startling is that this ing. What then, was New Labour’s response? From the moment that spectre should reappear during a period of unprecedented growth in Frank Dobson, then Secretary of State for Health, set up the living standards. Food poverty has always been first and foremost Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health under the chairman- about money, but in its modern form it is exacerbated by a more com- ship of Sir Donald Acheson, it became clear that a structural analysis plex array of structural factors. The food retailing system caters better of sorts was at last legitimate. Much of the government’s anti-poverty for the time poor, cash rich than for the time poor, cash poor; the strategy was based upon the need to reduce health inequalities by get- transport system better for car owners than those dependent on ting people back into waged work. buses. And as the majority have become richer, the relative exclusion New Labour’s strategy for reducing general poverty was clear. It of the poorest continues to increase. When food retailing left the high included the New Deal for Jobs, the minimum wage, the targeting of street the poorest found themselves without adequate local food benefits to ‘at risk’ groups and the establishment of the Social shops. Now that some local shops have returned, they are set up to Exclusion Unit (SEU) within the Cabinet Office. Yet with regard to
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Inconvenience food Hungry in a consumer society
food poverty, the policy response has been less coherent. In 1999, the as Estates A, B and C. They were chosen primarily because they repre- report of the SEU’s Policy Action Team (PAT13) on Access to Shops sented typical urban food deserts, areas of concentrated socio-economic made a significant contribution to the debate. Since then, the deprivation where local food shopping (in particular, neighbourhood response has been piecemeal. The main focus has been on general parades) had been denuded in recent years. In this regard, we actively income improvement, rather than on specific food targets. Welcome sought sites that seemed likely to represent the worst case scenario. We though this is, it is not enough. The PAT13 report proposed action on worked across three urban sites in order to compare population char- transport, planning, urban and rural regeneration, but the links acteristics and contrast low rise with high rise housing customs. We also between food policy and these other areas have been painfully slow to hoped to explore common themes in the coping strategies of our develop. interviewees and to identify the critical points of difference.
The material reality of food poverty has been recorded elsewhere. The four rural villages were more mixed in socio-economic terms, We owe a debt to the nutritionists who have monitored the conse- but all had very limited local food retailing, and buses to urban cen- quence of poverty on nutrient intake, particularly among children, tres where food shopping could be undertaken were infrequent. Our and to the researchers who have explored the social implications of rural interviewees were generally very low income, but we also widening divisions. Powerful work has been undertaken on the par- involved some higher income residents in our work, in order to con- ticular vulnerabilities of single mothers and their miraculous capaci- trast their household food economies. We also undertook some ty to juggle budgets and children, often at the expense of their own research in a nearby town (Town B). nutritional adequacy. And important work has been done on the Methods used included semi-structured interviews, group inter- impact of the retail revolution on low income consumers. This report views and ethnography. Interviewees provided detailed information 3 draws heavily on this work. with regard to the shopping and eating habits of themselves and their households. Accompanied shopping trips were also undertaken. In Research methodology total, 105 interviews were completed, together with a series of group
Our research documented the circumstances of low-income consumers interviews in each field location. The interviewee was generally the that limit their access to an adequate diet. We wanted to understand person who had primary responsibility for the household food shop- how food poverty affects people’s everyday experiences of shopping, ping, but the questions were often answered by more than one mem- cooking and eating. Key research questions included: ber of the household, or in the presence of friends or relations. 1. How do those with income constraints go about buying and prepar- The interviewees included single and partnered mothers and ing their food? What physical and social barriers do they encounter? fathers, couples, single person households, the elderly and the young.
2. How different is rural poverty from urban poverty and how does this Sometimes they were multigenerational, with the grandmother play- impact upon diet? ing an important role in the maintenance of the household. The vast 3. If food poverty, like any other social construct, is a dynamic concept, majority of interviewees were women, reflecting the fact that women
how is it changing during a period of continual income growth for remain the principle bearers of responsibility for food shopping and the mass affluent? preparation. In the urban sites, the ethnic background of the inter- 4. And, if food deserts exist, how do they manifest themselves in the viewees varied; in the rural areas, the interviewees were almost
lives of individuals and families? entirely white British. Over a period of twelve months, in-depth qualitative research was A small number of households were willing to share their day-to-day undertaken in an inner London borough, in a series of villages and in lives with us over a period of months. We were able to spend many a small town in a rural shire county. The London sites are referred to hours in the company of these people, most of whom were women,
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Inconvenience food Hungry in a consumer society
drinking tea in their sitting rooms, while children milled around and minute walk. Iceland, the independent shops and the market are a neighbours dropped in. By doing this, we could establish a much 15–25 minute walk away and Sainsbury’s is a half-hour bus ride. deeper understanding of the broader circumstances of our intervie- Estate A had the largest number (approximately 14) of fast-food eating wees’ lives – what happened to them when they were not shopping outlets, including McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, kebab shops and cooking, and how these circumstances influenced the household and Chinese takeaways. food economy. In addition, ten households kept in-depth diaries for Estate B is a prefabricated low rise housing estate with a large pro- us, documenting their day-to-day food habits: the details of shopping portion of white, elderly people. Facilities on the estate include a com- and eating, the time and money spent. munity centre, a church, a local shop and a kebab shop. The nearest In each site, the local retail geography was mapped. This was done large food store is a Co-op, which is an average 20 minutes’ walk. both by the researchers and during our group interviews, where we Tesco and Sainsbury’s are at the nearest shopping centres, and are asked the participants to draw their own food retail maps of their half an hour away by bus. local areas. Interviews were undertaken with shop owners, with local Estate C is a council estate with several five to six storey buildings. authority staff and with voluntary sector representatives who were As with Estate A, it has a culturally mixed population. There is an active in the area. active church and community centre on the estate and a local inde- Towards the end of the research period we undertook a series of pol- pendent foodshop. Tesco is half an hour away on the bus. icy panels with national stakeholders – involving representatives The Shire County district in which we worked was given from Whitehall, the retail sector and the voluntary sector. We provid- Development Area Status in 1984; it has an unemployment rate of 22 ed an overview of our findings and asked for feedback on our policy per cent, much of which is long term. Only 21 per cent of people liv- recommendations. This fed into the proposals put forward in the final ing in the district were without a car in the 1991 census (compared to section of the report. 30 per cent nationally), which reflects the lack of public transport ser- All interviewees remain anonymous, and the policy panels were vices and the need for a car in rural areas. There are three main towns conducted under Chatham House rules. (A, B and C) in the vicinity of the villages we visited which were regu- larly used for shopping. The main shops were a Somerfield in Town A, The field sites a Lidl and Co-op in Town B, and a Co-op in Town C. There are a num-
To protect the anonymity of our interviewees we are not identifying our ber of small bakers, butchers, fruit and veg shops and smaller chain field locations precisely. stores such as Spar. There is also a weekly market on a Friday in Town Most of the inner London field work took place on Estate A, which B selling fruit and vegetables, meat, biscuits, and sweets. was built in the early 1960s and comprises approximately 1800 house- The High Street of Village A is a busy road, with a constant stream holds. Half of the residents are aged between 18 and 35 and fewer of traffic. While the listed buildings along the High Street suggest a than ten per cent of the population are elderly. Between 55 and 60 per genteel status, there is a council estate at the back of the village. There cent of the residents are white British, 20–25 per cent are West are three food shops in the village: a Happy Shopper that offers cred- African, six per cent West Indian, six per cent Vietnamese and 6–8 per it; a delicatessen that sells a variety of speciality products including cent other nationalities. The registered unemployed exceed 20 per wines, cheeses, meats, pastas and home-made bread; and an old fash- cent. Estate A has a school on the corner of the estate, a medical cen- ioned bakery which also sells vegetables and offers a delivery service. tre, a resource centre, a pub, a children’s play area, a football ground There is a newsagent, a church, a doctor’s surgery, a post office, a and a short parade of shops including a small food store. Lidl (the hotel, two pubs, a primary school, a nursery, a village hall and a deep discounter) is a brisk ten minute walk away; Tesco is a 15–25 miner’s hall. During the week, Village A is well served by buses to the
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Inconvenience food Hungry in a consumer society
were lacking in fruit and vegetables, and when they were in difficult nearest city (about 30–40 minutes away) because of its position on a main road. There are three buses to Town A but only on a Sunday. circumstances they would usually put their children first and miss There is one bus to and from Town B and a bus which goes to Asda in out on meals. Mothers were often constrained in their choice of menus, as they knew their family liked certain meals and they knew the city centre, both of which only operate on Friday and are heavily used for shopping, particularly by older people. how much they cost when preparing their weekly budget. Varying Village B has a larger Spar, a butcher and a local pub. The Post from a set pattern of meals involved risk: the family might not like the variation, which would mean wasted money, wasted food and Office also sells some food. There are no eating outlets in the village, although some residents are petitioning for a fish and chip shop. The hungry, disgruntled children. buses go to Town B and the City Centre hourly from Monday to Like the mass of the population, families with children are likely to have diets that include plenty of crisps, sweets, chocolate or biscuits. Saturday, but with no service on Sundays. There is a bus to Town A on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. There is also a shop- However, they also have a higher propensity to rely on packet or ping bus to the market in Town B every Friday. tinned foods. The level of consumption of chips was high, particular- ly in the rural diet, where they were eaten between two and four Village C is a purpose-built council estate. The village has a primary school, and two local shops, one of which serves as a post office. times a week (not including school meals). The Sunday meal still Village C is about six miles from Town A. There are five buses Monday played an important role in the weekly diet, often being the only com- munal sit-down meal with servings of two vegetables in the week. to Saturday (no service on Sunday) to Town A with no service in the evenings and a circular bus once a week on Thursday. Families described the Sunday roast as a time for the family to get Village D is a large village, with a large purpose-built council estate. together and eat a proper home-cooked meal. School meals were per- ceived in both urban and rural areas as being of poor nutritional qual- The estate is close to two large village shops and a butcher’s. The near- est town is Town C, with twelve buses Monday to Friday during the ity. Frequently the parents did not know what their children had day and three buses in the evenings. There are five buses to Town B eaten at school. Culture had a strong influence on diet in many households. from Monday to Friday. Families of mixed ethnicity would often incorporate foods from a Patterns of food consumption variety of cultures in their diets. This was also the case with second generation Afro-Caribbean families. The parents and grandparents We did not set out to undertake a nutritional analysis of the diets of the poorest in Britain because their inadequacy has already been well often kept to their traditional diets, while their children would incor- established. This study focuses instead on general eating and shopping porate a wider mix of foods. For example, one respondent with a Nigerian background cooked Nigerian food five times a week, but at patterns as revealed through the interviews, diaries and participant observation of household mealtimes and shopping. Yet it is important weekends also ate English dishes. to establish at the outset that the diets of our interviewees were often The British population, on the whole, have year on year been spend- ing increasing amounts on eating out. Our low income respondents below optimal in terms of nutritional adequacy. The most striking defi- ciency was fruit and vegetables (not including potatoes). In many of the enjoyed eating out, but it was considered a real treat for them. In diaries, fruit would rarely – if at all – be consumed by any household urban areas, people tended to eat out more frequently than in the rural areas we studied. This was mainly due to the larger number of members over the course of a fortnight. The most likely source of fruit was in orange juice or squash and the type of orange “juice” was usually cheaper fast food outlets within easy reach. Eating out tended to of minimum nutritional quality (for example, Sunny Delight). involve McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the food stands at the market, the chip shop or the kebab shop. A Chinese or Indian meal Single mothers were a nutritionally vulnerable group. Their diets
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Inconvenience food was bought less frequently because of the greater expense. Families often mentioned having to be careful about the cost of eating out. In rural areas, lack of fast food outlets was the most obvious deterrent to low-income families from eating out often. However, on trips to large 2. The many dimensions of food towns for shopping, a McDonalds meal would often be bought as a family treat. Having a fast food outlet nearby was usually regarded as poverty desirable: one diary keeper spent an evening visiting her neighbours to ask them to sign her petition for a fish and chip shop which had been rejected by the council. The diets we encountered were often nutritionally poor, relying heavily on ‘cheap calories’ from processed low-cost foods. However, many households displayed considerable skill, as discussed later, in Gary does the shopping on a Thursday evening. Sometimes he is able to making use of a limited budget to create a varied diet. borrow his friend’s car, but generally he travels by bus. His eldest son comes with him to help carry the bags and they take the same route each week: Lidl’s for the tried and tested cheap stuff that he knows the kids will eat;
on to the late night market to get the best price on toiletries; and then up to the supermarket. Here they have to walk past the ‘three for two’ special offers because Gary’s budget won’t stretch to them. Instead, in his words,
they do the ‘yellow sticker’ run, hunting out the reduced prices on the ‘better quality’ goods that constitute a real bargain. Gary checks the cupboards before he leaves the house to be absolutely sure what they need, and he adds
it up as he goes along to save embarrassment at the check-out. On Wednesday night, Gary checks the cupboards, writes his list and works out his budget.
There is no room for temptation: Gary has learned through tough expe- rience that keeping the family away from hunger depends on precise
money management. It means a reliance on foods that fill you up rather than salad or fruit that does not. It means always having plenty of tins in the cupboard, so when the food money has to go on shoes or the elec-
tricity, there’s still something to eat for the week. It means putting away 20 pence every week from September onwards so that the kids can have their tin of special biscuits and cans of pop at Christmas. And it means
investing a significant amount of time in a routine that demands great precision and a detailed knowledge of local shops. Perhaps the most striking difference between low-income con-
sumers and the mass affluent is the energy and tenacity with which
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty they have to tackle food shopping. Our respondents had developed that food money was protected in lieu of paying for the telephone or complex coping mechanisms to minimise the impact of their poverty: the rent. In this chapter, we explore the complexities of the coping like Gary, they had their own personal systems for managing their mechanisms that allow people to balance on this knife-edge, and iden- money, for planning their shopping and for minimising food waste. tify where interventions must come in order to reduce the vulnera-
Rarely was shopping spontaneous or chaotic – rather it was deliber- bilities, and support the coping skills of those on very low incomes. ate, time intensive and controlled. Experimentation was extremely It is not easy to isolate the socio-economic, socio-cultural, physio- rare – buying new products, unless extremely cheap, ran the risk of logical and geographical factors that contribute to food poverty. uneaten food and hungry kids. Shopping baskets were filled routine- Money is, of course, the central determinant, and all our respondents ly with the same types of products. This is not a sign of the ‘inade- were on a very low income. The ability to cope on this income, how- quate’ food culture of the poorest in society, or ‘ignorance’ of healthy ever, was strongly influenced by access to affordable food. Our inter- eating: it is to do with the economics of survival. views revealed problems not just with transport and the number of Today, affluent Britain is beginning to move slowly away from the shops but also with time, family structure, childcare availability, weekly planned shop towards more spontaneous or ‘small basket’ working hours, housing circumstances and health. Shopping and food purchasing. This is driven both by demand and by supply: small- cooking skills are also key. All these factors play a part in the complex er households and busier lives encourage the purchase of easy to pre- mix of food poverty. pare, fresh food with a short shelf life. The growth of ‘metro’ and
‘compact’ stores makes it increasingly easy to buy tonight’s dinner on Income and budgeting the way home from work. Food retailers chase the value-added mar- The ability of low-income consumers to be able to specify, without ket, selling as much on ease as they do on price. notice, where their money is spent each week has been well docu- These trends only serve to reinforce the gap between the mass afflu- mented. Our study was no exception: many of our interviewees related ent and the poor. The poor are left to rely on the skills that have been in detail their income and budgeting patterns, the amount spent on largely forgotten: how to balance a tight budget, how to shop for the food, heat and utility bills, and the exact prices of the goods they had best prices, how to stretch the most basic of ingredients. And one of bought on their last shop. In coping with life on a low income, skilful the most remarkable things is how well many people manage to do it. budgeting becomes, as one respondent said, ‘a way of life’. The Family Among our respondents, Gary was not the exception but the norm – Spending survey for 2000–01 defines the lowest 20 per cent of house- like many households living on the knife-edge of poverty, he ‘just holds as those who earn less than £163 per week gross, or £158 per week about pulls it off’. There is food enough to fill the stomach, as long as in terms of disposable income. In contrast, research undertaken by The ‘you don’t expect to eat much fish, meat or fresh fruit and don’t invite Henley Centre in 2000 found that even those on average and below friends round for tea or have snacks without asking’. Such coping average household income in the UK did not find it necessary to strategies go a long way to explain the hidden nature of Britain’s food budget on a weekly basis at all.4 poverty and the lack, so far, of a coherent policy response.
Gary and his family are living with constant food insecurity. Table 1.1 Weekly income range for respondents Although they do not regularly suffer from hunger, they are forced to eat food that he himself recognises as being less than optimal in Urban /£ Rural /£ nutritional terms. This was the case for the majority of our respon- Median 104 100 Interquartile range 95–131 100–170 dents who, with varying degrees of success, were managing to eat well enough for six days a week, or managing to juggle their budgets so
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
Table 1.2 Employment status of households in the sample (where recorded) Pensioner, widowed, caring for his mother I get a pension of my own from work: £150 a month and an old age pension of £81 a week. From my Employment status No. of people pension come the bills: water £32/month; council tax £42/month; electric One person part time 7 £40/month; TV £8/month. From the old age pension I pay £58 a fortnight One person in full-time work 23 One person self-employed 4 for the house, food £15 a week.
One person on training scheme 2 Managing money was crucial to surviving on a low income. The good Unemployed / inactive 52 managers struggled to keep out of debt. Everything had to be paid for
Both in part-time work 2 weekly out of the benefits or wages. Bills were split and cards used for Both in full-time work 2 meters – to avoid the difficulty of any bulk payment: One part time/one full time 8 Woman, 21, London If a large bill comes in, I ring the shop and split the Our rural and urban households had similar profiles in terms of payment. If I haven’t got it, they can’t have it. Most things I pay weekly so income and working status (see Tables 1.1 and 1.2). Most of our inter- I don’t get into debt. TV license, I have a card and pay £3 per week. Electric viewees were receiving state benefits and all those in work were in low- is a key meter. Everything I pay before I use it rather than wait and have paid jobs. The majority were in receipt of housing benefits and other a bill come in. When I used to have a bill come in for the electric, I used to payments ranging from unemployment benefit to disability benefit, get into trouble. It’s a lot less stressful to pay for the thing as I go. and several respondents were taking part in New Deal welfare-to-work Shopping around is a way of life for low-income consumers, and is the programmes. Food was a substantial part of their budget; in the study key to their household coping strategies. Most of our respondents had sample the average weekly amount spent on food bought to eat at home very precise shopping patterns and displayed a high level of knowledge (rather than eating out) was 34 per cent of their budget (compared to of the prices of foods in different shops. When asked about their 8.6 per cent nationally in 2000).5 patterns of shopping, they were able to give precise reasons why they Below are some examples of the weekly budgets of our respondents. shopped where they did. These were easily reeled off the tongue as the figures were so regular- The main shopping was generally done in one or two expeditions a ly worked with. The amounts help us to imagine how tight the man- week. Smaller shops would be visited two or three times a week for agement of money is: top-ups (such as milk, bread and sweets). Often, the larger trips would
Single mother £143 a week, I get the rent paid by the housing benefit, be organised round the receipt of benefits. For parents, it would also when it’s winter I buy coal from the local shop at £18 per week. The Provident revolve round the children’s school timetables to avoid taking them man takes £10 per week, two other debt agencies £5 each and I pay £4 on shopping. Shopping had to fit in with bus timetables; many shoppers
the TV license. £5 per week on telephone bills and £10 on electric and water would also try to coincide their shopping times with the ‘yellow stick- rates about £6.00. The rest all goes on shopping. er run’. For those who worked, shopping had to be done on the way home, somehow slotted in around school times and at the weekend. Couple with children, one employed, low wage £10 per week for Looking for the best value required a considerable investment of time, council tax, rent £39.11. I get family credit on Tuesday – £70. £30 of that emotion and energy. For some interviewees, in particular those who goes on shopping, £10 on electric, £10 on council tax, £10 on cable and £10 worked in one or more part time jobs, available time was often a real in case I go out for the kids, £4 a week lottery. I use his money for rent, he impediment to their ability to shop around and make their money gives me £10 per week for Robby – for milk or the clinic - and £5 for Daniel’s stretch as far as possible. dinner money.
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
Most respondents shopped at a low cost discounter such as Lidl, Man, 34, with partner and three children, London Depends who’s Netto or Kwiksave for the bulk of the shop, and then at a better qual- doing the cheapest. I sound like a right scrounger don’t I? I sound right tight. ity supermarket such as Tesco for the branded, quality items that I get the cheapest things that are going. could be found on special offer or at reduced price. The majority of Those respondents who were less able to shop around – such as older shoppers visited between three and four retail outlets for their shop- people or those with impaired mobility were less aware of the price ping. In urban areas, in addition to the deep discounters and big differences. This was also true of many respondents in rural areas where name supermarkets, these outlets included the market, independent there was less choice of shops, and thus shopping around was grocers and convenience stores such as Londis. In rural areas, the Co- constrained. op featured more often in the retail repertoire, along with a greater Our London interviewees considered Iceland and Tesco the best use of local shops and occasionally farm produce. Retail geography, shops for bargains. For our rural interviewees, it was Somerfield and and thus choice, was generally more constrained in our rural sites. the Co-op. Consumers differentiated between bargains, products that Subsistence activities, such as growing vegetables and occasionally were good value and those that were cheap. Deep discounters such as the hunting of birds or rabbits, were an important part of the coping Lidl and Netto, were not seen as places to go for bargains because strategy of some rural households. everything was already cheap. Our interviewees contrasted between Most of our interviewees had developed sophisticated techniques to the foods their families would eat and those that, no matter how avoid the crushing embarrassment of not having enough at the cash till: cheap, were not worth buying because they would be left uneaten.
Woman, 42, London I add it up as I go along, write out a shopping list, For some shoppers, the limited range was also of benefit: or go by my last receipt, I always add an extra couple of pence so I have a If you shop at Kwiksave then you haven’t got the choice and you’re not little extra to play with. tempted to go over the limit. If you go to Somerfield you come out thinking Woman, 37, London I work it out in my head, £1 an item. I usually end either you’ve spent far too much or you haven’t got enough. up with a little bit left over. I’ve tried going out with a calculator but it’s Kwiksave and Iceland were seen as stores where good value foods embarrassing. I feel funny, everyone’s looking, and I’m more price conscious could be bought. Their quality was seen as mainstream; and the brands in Tesco than I am in Lidl. were recognisable. Tesco and Sainsbury’s were places where a real With others, a fixed pattern of buying the same goods each week bargain could be found: described as a high quality, branded product ensures that they have enough: that was on special offer or discount:
Woman, 23, Gloucestershire I have cash in hand. I put in what I need, Tesco sometimes has bargains as well, but I couldn’t do a weekly shop there I normally buy the same stuff every week so I know roughly what it’s going though, it’s £60, I’ve tried it. to come to. I have to do that because I haven’t got the money. There was no urban/rural difference in attitude towards bargain- Price awareness is key: while the price of staples is often known to the hunting. And while it was seen as a necessity, respondents also derived penny, shoppers also attempt to accommodate special offers, promo- great satisfaction from having got a good deal: tions and discounts as they shop around. In the Co-op in one of our rural Woman, 32, partner, one child Yes, most definitely, if there’s a bargain sites, for example, some shoppers would go to a discreet, unsignposted I’ve got it! I get all the ‘buy one get one free’ offers. I don’t really go for the corner, specifically reserved for very low-priced goods. It appeared three for the price of two. that it was only those on a low income who knew about its existence:
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
‘Buy one get one free’ was popular, and it was clear that this type of Woman, 68, London I’ve never tried Tesco value washing powder, it’s offer was much more accessible than the ‘buy three for the price of two’ usually really cheap stuff. When you’re used to proper brands you don’t option commonly available in supermarkets. Many suggested the latter want to buy those ones, it’s hanging on to your dignity as well . . . I used offer often applied to something they would not usually buy; more to use Fairy Washing Liquid then I tried Lidl’s it was only 75p, it was quite importantly, few could afford to spend that much, or could manage to good actually but it’s taken me a good few years to get to that. carry it home with them. There was a real sense of irritation among Woman, 27, Gloucester I was too embarrassed to go there at the begin- some interviewees in terms of the inappropriateness of some of the ning, my friend wouldn’t go in Lidl, now she goes there she’s saving loads special offers: of money. You don’t have many choices when you’re in our situation . . . I Woman, 29, London Sainsbury’s isn’t fair on the shoppers. You go there just ended up here. to get what you need and there are a lot of offers, so you buy extras, they There is even greater pressure on those with children. It was clear from want to make their money. They give food away but only at their conve- our interviewees that the emphasis on branding in playground culture nience. Often, it’s things you wouldn’t buy: six bottles of champagne, extends beyond trainers and clothes to lunchbox contents, where seventh free, no good to me, things like necessity food, things you need regu- certain products are viewed as a badge of poverty. The majority of brand larly, you won’t find these things on special offer. names bought by our interviewees were for children. Some mothers
Our respondents were keenly aware that their poverty excluded them would even conceal low-cost products in brand-name packaging, by from the consumer experiences of the mass population. They wanted swapping bottles and other containers, so the children would not to be able to afford to shop in mainstream supermarkets, and to be able know what the product was: to buy the well-known brands they associated with high quality, rather Woman, 30, Gloucester My boy is at the age where he won’t have than European non-labels from the deep discount retailers. Their own anything from Lidl’s. Once I’ve given it to him he will as long as he hasn’t patterns of shopping and food consumption underlined their sense of seen it. I’ve got to give it to him without the wrappers. exclusion. The deep discount retailers such as Lidl, Netto or Kwiksave are Woman, 42, Gloucester Mine weren’t bad but my friends’ children marked not just by their lack of brand names and cheapness, but by were, she had hell. We used to shop in Kwiksave and get the No Frills, but their limited product range, lack of space, aisle design, presentation her son went ballistic and said, ‘I’m not eating prison food, they’ll laugh at and number of staff: me at school, so she’d put it in another jar so he never knew. It wasn’t the food, it was the label. People are embarrassed to shop at Lidl’s. Lidl’s very good, it’s damn good value for money but the checkouts! You’ve
got to put everything in the checkouts and then pack it yourself with people Transport and mobility in a hurry behind you. Much of the research that has been undertaken on food poverty and Lidl’s disgusting, I don’t like it, I’d rather pay more and enjoy it. food insecurity in Britain has been concerned with the notion of food When people were asked what they would like to do if they had more deserts. This reflects the changes that took place from the early 1980s money, one of the frequent responses was to buy more brand names. in food retail geography: the decline of the high street and neigh-
Respondents were precise about the items that they were prepared to bourhood parade, and the opening of new supermarkets in out-of-town buy from low-cost value lines and those whose brand mattered to them. locations. Low-income communities, which offered retailers a less Shoppers, usually women, often felt sensitive about being forced attractive proposition, were left with a dearth of local retail outlets. always to buy the cheapest options: Those that remained were often selling takeaway food or a very limited
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
6 range of basic goods at a higher price than the superstores. Issues of barriers on the way. For example, for one of our diarists who lived on physical access to decent food shops served to reinforce the food Estate A, going shopping required returning from the bus stop to a poverty that was driven by low income. flat on the tenth floor, negotiating heavy metal doors with the buggy,
The impact of physical access upon our respondents was initially shopping and kids, and praying that the lift was working. Some of our difficult to ascertain. The field sites had been deliberately chosen respondents living in low rise buildings of four stories did not have because they appeared to represent worst case scenarios in terms of lifts at all: meaning that someone living at the top might have to do food retail geography. Unless our respondents had access to a car, two or three trips up and down the stairs to get the shopping into the we knew that they would either have to carry their shopping a con- flat. This was particularly difficult for the elderly, disabled and moth- siderable distance or rely on public transport. Yet to start with, ers with children: many of our respondents did not complain about their physical Woman, London To get your shopping home you’ve got to struggle home, access to the shops they used. Indeed, the level of stoicism about the that’s the hardest part, that’s the main issue, it’s getting your shopping home time and energy that had to be invested in reaching the shops was from the main road home. surprising. It was only as the ethnographic component of the fieldwork pro- Woman, London The elderly have to get to the shops as best they can. Tesco gressed – and our researcher spent long days with our respondents as helps them out with plus bus things but the only trouble with that is that they trailed to the shops, forced buggies along the narrow aisles of it stops in a certain place and the old people have to get from there. It’d be buses, endured long waits at bus stops and negotiated flights of stairs nice to see a bus that would drop them to their front doors. in high rise flats with children and shopping – that the real impact Once at the bus stop further difficulties were encountered: getting on become clear. For the elderly and those with children, the physical dif- the bus and negotiating the aisles. Some mothers with young children ficulties of getting to the shops could be enough to prevent them even reported that often they could not face attempting it – and would use trying on bad days. For those who were also working, the lack of time the local convenience store or pay extra money for a taxi when their available combined with the physicality of shopping to create a real energy levels were low. The lack of space for buggies, babies and bags problem: not just in terms of shopping around and budgeting, but in was frequently mentioned in both urban and rural areas: managing to reach the shops at all.
According to the Office for National Statistics, around 40 per cent of Woman, 23, London I never take the bus, the buggies are too big: the households headed by unskilled manual workers do not have access buggy, the baby and the shopping, I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own. to a car. For our respondents, the lack of access was much higher. In Woman, 50, Gloucester There’s nowhere to put your shopping once you’re the rural areas, 58 per cent of households did not own a car and in the on because there’s no space, no big container things, they’re very ancient urban field sites the figure was much higher. For the majority, bus buses and they’re not really built for passengers. It doesn’t make it any easier travel was the major factor in terms of access to shopping. There were with bags, it’s a nightmare to carry and if you’ve got a trolley you’ve still three key issues: the distance from the bus stop to the person’s front got to haul it up these really high coach steps . . . the drivers are told not door; the convenience of getting on and off the bus laden with shop- to help you in their contract, not even if you’ve got luggage. If you’ve got ping and/or children; and the space inside the bus itself. children and shopping I think you deserve a medal, I don’t know how women It is no surprise that getting to the bus stop for the outward journey manage, they’ve got a toddler on the hip, a baby in a pushchair and all the was less of a problem than returning home again with shopping. This shopping. was particularly true in urban areas. A council estate can be deceptive in the actual distance it takes to get from a flat to the bus stop and the
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
Part of the anguish felt by mothers on the buses was that nobody helped In rural areas, where the distances tend to be greater between home them – they were conscious of being watched as they struggled alone: and shops, other types of access problems were encountered. Respondents noted considerable difficulties in getting access by bus to
Woman, 34, Gloucester It’s people, the bus isn’t too difficult but with bags key services such as the hospital, or to any sort of social life. Public trans- and things like that, it’s just awkward, you can’t leave your baby with a port thus added to the sense of isolation and social exclusion among complete stranger, it’d be nice if someone helped. Men don’t help, other our rural sample:
mothers sometimes help, you feel so alienated, you start getting flustered Woman, 74, Gloucester You can go on the bus from here to L . . . but when and dropping things when you get into the bus and everyone’s staring at you got off, there’s nothing to take you up to the hospital. It’s terrible. you.
Constrained physical access to adequate food shopping often creates Bus services often fail to serve shopping areas used by people on low additional costs. In order to get their shopping home, those dependent incomes. In urban areas, people mentioned not being able to get to on public transport are faced with a hard choice: they either shop more discount shops such as Lidl, without having to change buses and hence regularly and so spend more on public transport, or they pay for a taxi increase the cost of the shop, in terms of time as well as money. This to get them home: was coupled with the often reported overcrowding on the buses that made shopping expeditions even more difficult: Woman, 70, London It would be too heavy for me. Nine times out of ten I would order a mini cab for £2.50, they’ve gone up to £3.00 now. It was a Woman, 55, London The 199 is disgusting, the number 47 is just as bad. lot out of a pension, then again it was the only way to get home. You’d often We’re not served by bus routes, when the bus comes back from Lewisham have to make another journey, especially if you want potatoes or washing it’s always packed. powder. Woman, 50, Gloucester It’s probably easier to get to Calais than to the On other occasions, the difficulty and expense of making another shop- shops. ping trip leads people to use their local stores and incur higher prices. Woman, London The buses are terrible, very unreliable. You wait half an This is particularly common in rural areas: hour, you could wait an hour, it’s terrible especially in the winter, and when Woman, 24, Gloucester It’s the fuss of catching a bus, getting the kids they come along they’re packed. off to school and thinking well how am I going to get home with all my shop-
In rural areas, the infrequency of buses was compounded by them ping like, you know and it puts you off going you know. You end up spend- coming at the wrong times. When a service was dropped or changed it ing more money here (local shops) by the time it is time to go to Coop and had a big effect on those who were forced to organise their lives get your groceries for the week the money’s gone. around the bus timetable. Older people catching the bus in one village It might seem that delivery of goods is the answer to some of these prob- complained about the recent change in the bus times which was allow- lems. Supermarkets are beginning to offer more home delivery services. ing them less time to shop: For example, Iceland offers the service if the customer spends more Man, 69, Gloucester Terrible. It’ll give you exactly 50 minutes, that’s all than £25 and lives within a certain radius. However, our respondents
they’ll allow you to go shopping, 12 o’clock and back at ten to one. You want did not universally welcome delivery: two hours really, you miss a lot of the bargains. Old people need longer to Woman, 40, Gloucester I don’t think so, I like the independence of being get round. able to choose what I want.
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
Woman, 35, London I like to look for bargains. Shopping was often referred to as being a woman’s job, and this was particularly prevalent in bargain hunting. Close friends who regularly Woman, London I don’t fancy it, if you want to buy stuff you’ve got to shopped together, and family (particularly mothers and daughters) look at it, it’s visual. were the most likely candidates to organise shopping together. Woman, 36, Gloucester I like going shopping, it’s the only place I go Six of the diary keepers were single parents. They were the group in really. the sample most vulnerable to financial and emotional strain.
Cooking was something that lone parents did for their children, Woman, 67, Gloucester I like to go out as exercise, it’s good to get a bit rather than seeing it as something which should be a priority also for of exercise, especially if you’ve got a bit of arthritis like me. themselves. Some lone mothers said that they did not see the point in
There were people who did use home delivery, particularly in London. cooking much for themselves: Iceland’s service was very popular with mothers; others said it sounded Woman, 21, London Me? I don’t really, I usually eat sandwiches, by the like a good idea but wasn’t for them. The £25 limit did restrict those time I’ve tidied up, washed up, made the bottles I can’t be bothered to make who could use the service, and placed it beyond the reach of most anything for myself. elderly couples, or those living on their own. Woman, 21, London He eats first then I eat. I eat once a day. I get up at Families and children seven, get him ready, by the time I’ve put on my clothes I’ve forgotten about The different family structures we encountered had a great deal of influ- it. I have a cigarette for breakfast, lunch a cup of tea, a biscuit, a packet of ence on the shopping and cooking of each household. Shopping and crisps and make some for him. Dinner, we’ll have meat, veg and potatoes. cooking were complex and often onerous tasks, because the person Where a whole family were still sharing a house or living near one involved, usually the woman of the household, had to consider all the another, financial support from relatives was vital in enabling respondents likes, dislikes and needs of her household. In our interviews, we always to cope with life on a low income. It was usually the mother who was the sought the views of the main shopper in the household, and 80 per cent one who helped out. Her help might be supplied on a regular basis or of these were women. Shopping and managing the family’s supply of turned to in times of particular need. This situation was reversed for some food still came very much within the female domain, with men being households, where the mother was elderly and vulnerable. In these cases, regarded as unskilled in the key techniques of shopping efficiently children – usually daughters – would be the source of support: within a budget: Woman, 30, 3 children, Gloucester I manage on it. My family allowance Woman, 35, London My husband slows me down, he’ll stand there and goes to my Mum’s, who sorts out my bills and insurance, catalogue stuff, I read everything, I prefer to go on my own, he just complains, I take no notice. wanted a new pram and Christmas stuff for the baby. Woman, 42, London . . . when I had my little girl, I gave my partner a Woman, 29, 3 children, London If I’m short I usually go down to Mum’s list, he bought back the same things that we buy every week but it cost and she cooks, I usually raid the kitchen, Mum really helps out. more, where it was £60 what we usually buy, it came to a hundred and something. If I put down nappies, he’d pick the first nappies that he’d see, Family structure also has a profound influence on the experience of
if I put down toilet paper, the first toilet roll he’d see. I don’t buy the cheap- shopping. Parents across the social classes will understand the stress est but I buy a nicer brand than the value line, but he’ll buy the most of a screaming child at the checkout and an ill-tempered infant in the expensive. shopping trolley. But for those on a low income, these problems go
beyond irritation and embarrassment and directly impact on the
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
coping strategy of the household. The mass affluent can adopt the Woman, 42, Gloucester If I could have left them at home I would have perspective of ‘let’s chuck it in the trolley and get out of here’, but done, if there was a crèche facility I would have definitely used it, a lot of managing on a low income requires shopping around, exact budgeting mums would . . . Crèches are ideal, a brilliant idea, I would have welcomed and the investment of time and energy. The presence of small children it, I would have been able to be much more thoughtful about the shopping. can make this near impossible, and the combination of attempting to Woman, 24, Gloucester Lidl doesn’t have baskets or trolleys you can get control young children in a public place while trying to mentally add children in. up prices was described as a ’nightmare’. Another problem associated with taking children shopping is their demands: parents frequently mentioned how their children would Elderly people always want things that they could not afford, a situation made worse Like the parents of young children, the elderly experience specific by the heavy advertising of products to children. This not only causes constraints on their physical access to adequate food shops. There are embarrassment, but may also lead parents to lose control of their bud- many different levels of need among older people living on low geting methods in order to appease their children: incomes: some receive meals every day from Meals on Wheels; some receive frozen meals on a fortnightly basis; some have care assistants, Woman 30, Gloucester With children it’s a bloody nightmare. I won’t family members or friends to help with the shopping and cooking; and take ‘em, they dump everything in the trolley. I can’t afford it. others are still independent and fit enough to shop alone either on foot, Woman, 34, Gloucester Yeah, I always make sure I have a round idea by bus or by taxi. It is the last two groups that we focused on in this of what I want in the first place. It’s more difficult when the children come study. The majority of older people interviewed belonged to groups such
with me, it’s trying to keep hold of them, then it’s “I want this, I want that”, as luncheon clubs, bingo clubs and community centres. A number of it gets very confusing. older people were also spoken to during the door to door interviews we carried out. Estate B was chosen specifically because of its large elderly Woman, 27, London They do a lot a lot of products with cartoon char- population. acters on them and all the kids are mad on it . . . . they say, ‘buy this one The biggest problem noted by older people in both urban and rural Mummy’ and they grab it and before you know it you’re at the till saying, areas was the quality and availability of public transport. Physical ‘I didn’t want this’. frailty or the lack of reliable transport meant that older people were Very few supermarkets provide child care of any kind and those that often dependent on their local stores, and invariably paid higher do tend to charge for it. prices than they would if able to go to supermarkets. In many cases
The lack of toilet facilities in supermarkets was also mentioned as a the local store would deliver supplies, but although some people liked source of stress: in some cases the mother would have to drop her their neighbourhood shop, others only used it because they had no shopping to take her child to the toilet. In the budget supermarkets, practical alternative. For example, in one rural area, elderly people there was no provision at all. There were also problems with the lay- from a sheltered housing estate all paid the higher prices of their out of the supermarket and the sizes and types of trolleys available for nearby Co-op because they couldn’t walk down and then up the hill to mothers with young children: the cheaper Lidl store. Older respondents generally liked going shopping and saw it as an Woman, 30, London I try not to go with Suzy, but it’s harder in the school opportunity to get out and meet people. This was particularly clear on holidays. Sainsbury’s do a crèche but you have to pay, it used to be about Estate B, where the community centre organised a special mobility £1.50 up to the age of eight. bus to take elderly people shopping. The same regulars would get on
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
once a week, then be dropped off and picked up from a main shop- Most people used the local shop for incidental items: newspapers, ping centre, with two hours to do their shopping. Frequently they milk, cigarettes, alcohol, electric tokens and sweets, or for goods that would all meet for tea after they had done their shopping: they had forgotten in their weekly shop. Very few bought a large pro-
portion of their shopping there: Warden of sheltered housing in rural area Happy Shopper do a deliv-
ery service, one person used to have that, there are home helps, dial a ride. Woman, 57, Gloucester I use the local shops just for stamps, cigarettes, It is dearer at the local shop but it’s the only option, they do realise that. newspapers. I don’t buy food in the local shops, I know they are very Dial a ride takes them to the Co-op and brings them back again. But Mrs expensive. Lewis in no.12, she wouldn’t dream of using dial a ride, she’ll use the local shops a lot, don’t ask me why, some people are funny in their ways. A lot Man, 45, London Yes, 99p for a Kingsmill loaf of bread. Well, you think, of people have help from families and friends . . . I think they feed them- it’s like six o’clock at night, you don’t really want to travel anywhere, the
selves quite well, meat, veg, potatoes, pretty well, even the men. shop’s right on top of you. So you buy it. It’s just easier to pop over the road and buy a loaf of bread for a pound. Older respondents often felt that they had a greater knowledge of cooking skills than many of the young generation in the areas we Woman, 63, London Potatoes are very heavy, he gets them locally, he has visited, and they also placed greater importance on having a cooked to pay more. He’s not very well at the moment and when he doesn’t feel well meal every day. Respondents often referred to the experience of living he has to buy everything local. through the Second World War and coping with rationing. They were One of the biggest differences between urban and rural shopping also much more likely, particularly in the rural areas, to have vegetable patterns was the extent to which the local shop was a much more gardens: important and popular feature of the community, both socially and
Woman, 74, Gloucester One main meal, potatoes and veg, sometimes we functionally. Shoppers, however, knew the price differentials and have cabbage. I’ve been preparing a joint at the weekend, and we make it often tried to minimise the amounts they spent at the shop. Jane, a preg- last until Tuesday. Then it’s bacon and sausage, yoghurt, fruit and cream. nant mother without a car, sometimes could not face the walk to the
No I don’t have pasta and rice. bus stop, get a bus, do the shopping, lug it home on the bus and then walk 15 minutes to the house. The local shop was handy and Jane would Woman, 83, rural area I had good parents. I know what it is, a cooked spend her money there until she had the energy to go to the main shop: meal, chops, ham, gammon, parsley sauce. I do believe in good food, espe- Woman, 56, London It’s too expensive, very, very expensive. I go there only cially fruit, one good meal a day. I’ve been 12 years on my own. when I need, unless I don’t have the tins at home. If it was like Lidl, I’d use it more, something at Lidl is 9p, at local shop it’s 59p. The local shop Man, 44, Gloucester If I’m desperate I’ll go to the local shop but you can The local shop or convenience store featured heavily in the shopping spend a tenner there without blinking an eyelid, the other day I bought a patterns of most of our interviewees, particularly the elderly and lettuce, a cucumber, three to four tomatoes, three onions, a thing of spring single parents. The local shop is often an independently owned onions, beetroot, cheese, two packets of noodles, a paper and a chocolate bar newsagent that has diversified into a general store. In addition, there and it came to £10.15. It’s real dear, in Lidl that would have been £4.00. are a number of convenience chains and franchises (for example, Spar and Budgens) which are often described as local because of their neigh- Some village shops offered extra services such as free delivery and bourhood positioning. credit:
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
Woman, Gloucester At Arthur’s just about everybody has a tab, Lou has Credit and cutbacks
one for £700, it makes business difficult for him sometimes, if you go past Living on a low income means setting clear priorities for spending, so there and you’ve forgotten your purse you don’t have to pay. that when things have to be cut back on, the essentials are kept in order.
Food has to remain the priority: Woman, 50, Gloucester You’ll find that small shops become clubs. People gather, it’s a social meeting place, you’ll go there, not necessarily to talk to Man, 34, London When you haven’t got the money, you’ve got to be careful the local shop keeper but you’ll meet people and you’ll exchange daily what you do, very careful. Otherwise you end up in trouble. I mean, some- times it’s the wrong attitude but, as long as there’s electric and food, nothing happenings and it’s a chance if you’re isolated at home to go out and meet people and that’s another reason why we’ve got to keep the local shops alive else really matters. definitely. Woman, 27, London It happens quite regularly, what with the children Woman, 74, Gloucester There isn’t a shop in the village anymore. The needing trainers etc, we cut back on food, things like biscuits and crisps, as long as they get their main meals. Mum and Dad help out and bring juice post office went, someone bought it and they had it converted into a house. It’s a right shame, it wasn’t fair on the village. It ain’t a village without a and crisps down. shop, not really. Going short was a regular fact of life for many respondents. Certain There was a tension between the loyalty people felt for the local shops items viewed as ‘luxuries’ (branded foods, chocolates, cakes etc.) would be cut out first, followed by less elastic items. The frequency with which and the practicalities of cost and quality. Some residents mentioned that they would ideally like a supermarket in their neighbourhood people said they found themselves cutting back significantly on food while others felt that would close down the local shop: purchases varied from every week to once every couple of months:
Woman, 30, London That’s why I try to use both the shops for quality and Woman, 36, Gloucester Sometimes I have to go short on vegetables, little things, the fresh meat, it all depends how much I have. I have to go shop- to keep the little shops going. It would be awful if they died out and the corner shop went. ping every week. It’s not often I’ll miss a week. I’d say every couple of months, the bills come in all at once sometimes. If you don’t pay them you get in Woman, 34, Gloucester An awful lot of people buy a lot of shopping there, trouble again. You have to go without this or that just so you can have a but it’s too much for all your shopping. I like the idea, it’s whether it’s cost pair of shoes. Food’s a necessity. If they’re not healthy, they can’t go to school, effective, when you’ve got a big family you can’t think of being loyal to the then you get the education people on your back. My children are quite big local. I’d rather shop in a local shop but whether I can afford 37 or 85p eaters. makes a big difference where you go. Woman, 29, Gloucester As long as they get full and it’s reasonable I don’t care what food, I get the basics, meat veg. I don’t have any luxury food at The local shop has often been proposed as the panacea to food poverty all. If I haven’t got the money then we won’t go shopping even if it means in light of the problems of access to adequate food retailing. However, living off chips for a week. in its current context, it is often as much a part of the problem as the solution. Access problems cannot simply be ameliorated by local inde- Going short was not simply a matter of cutting back on purchases. It pendent stores, as the food poverty equation is far more complex also involved consciously downgrading from particular brands to the (including issues of cost). cheapest value lines. Some single mothers mentioned that when they were short of money they would often cut back on meals for themselves
but would ensure that their children never had to go without:
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
attitudes and experiences with debt and loan companies are Woman, 29, London I won’t cut back on food, I pay for the food first, I make sure the kids go first. I won’t eat, I go without a main meal, I only described below: weigh about seven or eight stone. I don’t mind as long as the kids get what I don’t think it’s a good idea to have credit. Because you end up piling it they need. up and all of a sudden you can’t pay it back . . . Sometimes, certain things, you have to, you’ve got no option. Families also tended to have a supply of goods in their cupboards which they could use in times of shortage: for some this was as regularly as They take you to court. You still have to pay but it’s a lot less than what every week when they ran out of goods and were unable to go back to they’re asking. Sometimes you can work it out with them by sending letters and they can be quite reasonable but it just depends. Sometimes you can’t the shops for more: help getting yourself in debt. You’re there and then you’ve got to try and Man, 34, London I freeze my bread and stuff like that . . . Like, he looks get out of it but you can’t think how. in my cupboard and says, what do you want so many tins of stuff for? “What There’s no access to loans, no savings, just enough for the basics, the shoes are you doing, feeding the millions?” No it ain’t, it’s being sensible. If some- have to wait. I fell into a lot of debt when I had Ben, for about 18 months, thing happened and I didn’t have any money for that week, even if they lived but I’m clear of that now, at last. on beans, at least it’s there. We’ve got enough tins . . . I’ve got the cupboard completely full front to back. The same with sweetcorn, carrots. Debt more often occurred at Christmas than at any other time of the year. For those on a low income, the emotional and financial trappings Woman, 21, Gloucester We’ll get our giro tomorrow, then go shopping of Christmas were seen as a huge problem: but by next week we’ll be short of things. [By] the second week I just get things from the freezer. The second week we don’t have fresh fruit and veg, Man, 34, wife and three children, London Don’t! Christmas is a night- we have frozen. I’d love to have fresh fruit and veg every night. mare. Well, ever since we’ve had kids, I’ve always got a certain amount of stuff for Christmas. We’ve always had two big tins of sweets and untold Nearly all of our interviewees fell into the group of 1.5 million people crisps and fizzy drinks and fruit and, if I can’t get that, I’ll go and borrow in the UK who do not have access to formal banking and credit services. off someone. Last year I was getting really panicky because I thought, I can’t The ‘Provident man’ was as close to mainstream credit services as most get it, they’re going to have nothing. And I was really getting annoyed. I of them could get. More sinister were the money lenders charging inter- don’t like to disappoint them, especially at Christmas. It’s only once a year est rates in three figures, whom some of our younger mothers had isn’t it . . . I don’t like to disappoint them. fallen prey to in the run up to Christmas. These women then found themselves in a debt trap that was set to last for years and absorbed an Strategies involved putting money aside every month from as early as mid-year; joining a pub/group club, borrowing off a friend, or getting important part of their weekly income. Commonly, older mothers talked about how they had struggled in in debt to the Provident man who goes round council estates knocking previous years to get themselves out of the debt they had incurred. on people’s doors offering Christmas vouchers and loans:
These women would struggle to establish a Christmas saving pot early Woman, 29, Gloucester I will buy from catalogues. I try to save the money on in the year and they would control their use of catalogues. In this for Christmas and then go shopping with it, I usually start at the end of way their money management skills, on which their household’s sur- August asking them what they want and go shopping. vival depended, had become ever more finely tuned with time. We asked how many respondents had savings: 28 per cent said they Woman, 23, Gloucester I had a loan of £1000 two years ago from the did (of which half said it was only a small amount), and 72 per cent Provident man. I’ve got £300 left. I think I had to pay back £1500 in total. We had a bloody good Christmas though. said they had no form of savings at all. Some of their different
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
Health and liveability and unpleasant physical environment with high rates of violence, Poverty and health are intimately linked. In Britain, death rates at all crime and vandalism. For some of our respondents, this created a fear ages are two to three times higher among disadvantaged social groups of going out, particularly for more vulnerable groups such as the 7 than their more affluent counterparts. These inequalities in health elderly and mothers with children. There was much more fear on were the subject of the government inquiry into Inequalities in Health council estates in London than in the rural areas we worked in. These led by Sir Donald Acheson. This report highlighted a range of contrib- factors contributed to the pressures on our respondents in making utory factors: the quality of the physical environment – housing, decisions about food shopping – for example, by restricting the geo- working conditions and pollution; economic and social influences – graphic mobility of individuals, limiting the range of shops available income and wealth, level of unemployment, quality of social relation- locally and contributing to a fear of the outside environment. It also ships and social support; and access to effective health and social reinforced their awareness of their relative social exclusion. services. The poorest citizens have greater exposure to many health risk fac- Skills and learning tors such as lack of breast feeding, smoking, physical inactivity, stress, Skills in shopping and cooking displayed by our low-income respon- obesity, hypertension and poor diet. Many of these can be described as dents often seemed to make the difference between a household that lifestyle choices, reflecting habits, attitudes and cultures of consump- managed to cope well with financial constraints and one that did not. tion that are destructive. However, these choices have to be under- Those on a low income often displayed a high degree of ability in shop- stood in the context of the difficulties of living on low incomes: ciga- ping, cooking and budgeting which benefited them in coping with little rettes and fatty foods provide comfort and temporary release from money and other pressures. However, there was a significant dichotomy strain, and giving up an addiction requires motivation and strength here between those who had great cooking skill and those who strug- which is sometimes difficult to muster under the constant drain of gled without. This difference could be key to the success of the house- energy from struggling on a low income. Disadvantaged groups are hold coping strategy. also deterred from adopting healthier lifestyles for financial reasons. It was interesting to note where people learned these skills. This Problems of homelessness, overcrowding and poor quality housing question was asked in relation to cooking but it also came up in the have major health consequences, both physical and mental. There is other areas. The most important site of learning was always the home. still a substantial stock of poor quality housing in the UK with prob- Most people asked were able to cite first their mother and then per- lems such as damp, inadequate heating, infestations, poor design and haps their father, grandmother or other members of the family. The lack of play space. Families in bed and breakfast accommodation older generations were rich in knowledge of household management often do not have adequate cooking facilities, leading to a nutrition- skills and it was often they who would lament the loss of learning ally poor diet.8 today: Government is increasingly concerned with the issues summed up Woman, 68, Gloucester A lot of the young people don’t know how to cook, in the term ‘liveability’ – the state of local environments and their all they need is a tin opener. I like the old fashioned cooking, the stew and relationship with community and personal quality of life.9 The quali- dumplings. My mother learnt us when we were small, I was one of ten. ty of a neighbourhood’s amenities, ‘streetscapes’ and open spaces can make a major difference to the overall quality of life of individuals Woman, 17, Gloucester I read magazines and get it from there. My Dad and whole communities. To this we can add, as we have seen, the taught me how to cook, he learnt all of us kids, we were making cups of tea. quality of the local retail environment. I learnt from my Dad how to cook, five brothers and two sisters, he did all
Living on a council estate often means exposure to a claustrophobic the cooking.
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
Woman, 50, rural area I’ve been brought up to eat fresh quality food but tended to use local markets a lot to get traditional foods such as okra, also how to make the best use of it, so as a tiny child I was taken in and cassava and yams. They also often bought in bulk, stocking their freez- out of all these shops and listened to my Grandmother haggling, including ers for a couple of months with fish and meat. In Afro-Caribbean
cuts of cheese, butter. Same as my Mother, she was a big shopkeeper. I don’t communities, the family unit appeared very strong: meals tended to be think I was ever taken in by advertising, but I don’t think I’m the norm eaten together and the influence of the parents’ original cultural there. background was still significant.
There was a suggestion from some respondents that people could Friends also played an important role in learning. Mothers, and occa- see a change of diet from the first generation to the second genera- sionally fathers, would often swap recipes, cooking tips and knowledge tion of Afro-Caribbean people living in London. The first generation of shops and bargains. Other interviewees mentioned school education, seemed to persist with more traditional diets, cooking without much and in some cases catering courses, as sources of information. Many resort to convenience foods. Respondents felt that the second genera- people thought that healthy eating was a matter of common sense, tion seemed to be mixing both traditional and convenience cultures, whilst others admitted to picking up particular items of knowledge but would focus on traditional food when the wider family got along the way. Others were more specific and mentioned TV, maga- together. zines, leaflets, the doctor’s surgery and the under five’s group. The most common source of learning was experience itself: having to look after Diet and attitudes to healthy eating siblings while growing up; leaving home; having children; losing a The factors influencing the dietary patterns of different households are partner; or experiencing hardship and having to learn how to cut back: difficult to isolate. But the choice of convenience foods and assembled
Woman, 23, Gloucester Mum, she drummed it into me at an early age. meals reflected lack of time and money, a purely instrumental view of food as fuel and family influences. The pattern of regular cooking from Woman, 21, Gloucester I learnt off my Mum and off myself, I learnt my scratch reflected personal enjoyment of the process of cooking, knowl- mistakes with some things, it was expensive. edge of food and cooking technique and an awareness of the impor- Man, 44, Gloucester Cooking is something I’ve had to learn over the years, tance of food for health and quality of life. The difference in the cost it’s trial and error, a lot of error. You learn from other people, they give you of convenience and home-made food was one of perception. Those who
tips. made their own food usually believed it was cheaper and those who bought packets and tins often believed it was cheaper than having to Many of these domestic management skills are now being eroded. The buy all the ingredients to make your own: breakdown in traditional family structures, the large-scale entry of women into the workplace, the lack of time on the school curriculum Woman, 27, rural area It’s cheaper to make your own, I always look at designated for cooking, the growth of convenience foods and a time- things and think you can make it cheaper and nicer yourself. Occasionally squeezed culture have all contributed to a decline in the skills of I’ll buy a frozen pizza or a fish pie. cooking, shopping and budgeting. Man, 65, rural area I’ll always get decent food no matter what, it’s cheaper to buy food and make it yourself. Ethnic minorities Time was of course the other major determinant in deciding whether Estate A has a high percentage of Afro-Caribbean residents. Interviews someone would use convenience foods: with women from this community indicated that the older generation often passed on skills in the use of traditional ingredients. Women Woman, 56, London Myself, I have a very busy volunteer life. I find my
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Inconvenience food The many dimensions of food poverty
eating habits are such that I eat when I can, not when I should, I eat what’s poverty. Two of the diary keepers, for example, spent between £25 and quick. I have to go shopping when I can or buy something that’s quick £30 each week on cigarettes and alcohol each and yet discussed ‘not because I’ve only got an hour to do it. being able to afford’ to buy fruit. In both cases smoking and alcohol
were regarded as essential to ‘getting through the day’. This type of Most people said they knew what a healthy diet was, although the unhealthy and expensive consumption raises questions about how far ingredients cited by respondents varied considerably. The most people should be deterred from certain types of consumption for their common responses included a diet rich in fruit and vegetables. Other own good and that of their children: items mentioned as healthy were meat, low fat food, salads, pasta, grilling food rather than frying it, fish, lentils, wholemeal food and Worker at an unemployment centre, London I know there are lots yoghurt. A few people included other lifestyle factors such as regular of people [spending money on cigarettes and alcohol] but we don’t really talk exercise, non-smoking and moderate drinking in their concept of about it here. If we did, I’d want to say, ‘stop smoking’ or ‘put the bottle of healthy eating. drink down’. I’ve had a difficult enough job just keeping the area where I Some people had suffered from a medical condition such as dia- work smoke free. I don’t like children being brought up in that environment. betes, a heart attack, high blood pressure and had changed their diets Children need choice. as a result. These people were able quickly to reel off what they The impact of smoking, alcohol and drugs on many people’s health and thought was a healthy diet: experience of food poverty was evident. But to many, the irrationality Man, 62, London Since my heart attack I have to keep my cholesterol levels and self-destructiveness of spending on these items, severely limiting down, I don’t eat prepackaged food, they’re full of fat so I tend to make my what money was left for food, were not factors that outweighed the
own, I find it’s pretty good, I’ve drastically changed my diet, I do feel a lot consolations they could bring to often bleak lives. Food poverty some- better for it, if you do eat healthy, you feel healthy. times brought out great ingenuity and skill in our respondents; it could also engender fatalism and a vicious cycle of unhealthy consumption. The sensitive question of ‘how much of a good diet do you think you and your family are getting?’ was met with a generally positive response. People tended not to take offence at the question; however, there was an element of defensiveness in some responses along with an assertion about the degree of effort that the mother made to feed her family:
Woman, 42, rural area I don’t think it’s too bad, we always get fruit in the house, I don’t fry, I think about it, I have skimmed milk.
Some people did say from the outset that their diet was not adequate, and the reason given was invariably lack of money:
Woman, 30, Gloucester Not a lot if you look at it properly. To improve
it I suppose we could eat more fresh fruit and veg and fresh meat. It’s money that’s stopping me.
For some, smoking, alcohol or drugs were a major contributor to food
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Developing a policy response
Treasury, not just public health proponents. Coronary heart disease, for instance, costs an estimated £10 billion a year. These are exter- nalised costs to the food system, over and above what the consumer 3. Developing a policy response pays for at the check-out till. Food supply chain
The food sector is a major employer, accounting for 3.3 million jobs in agriculture, fisheries, processing, distribution, selling, catering and marketing. It accounts for 11.8 per cent of total employment and 12 about 7.7 per cent of total GDP. The food economy has undergone a revolution in the last half century. This has brought great advan- Food poverty is a classic example of a complex system which will not tages to many but it is now time to recognise that alongside the 10 fit into a standard policy or institutional framework. It is driven by winners, the needs of the losers are not being adequately addressed. income, but modified by physical access, time, energy, family structure Food retailers in particular have been in the policy firing line from and social networks. Tackling it will require a cross-sectoral response. food poverty campaigners and analysts.13 Combating the negative
No single government body or department has the power to solve all effects of the supermarkets has not been a government priority, and the problems that contribute to food poverty. Further, we need both a the Competition Commission inquiry into consumer pricing, while national and local response. not giving them a completely clean bill of health, largely exonerated 14 In this chapter, we chart a way through this complexity, and offer them from requiring any further intervention. the outlines of a policy framework. There are those who argue that Of all the elements in the food supply chain, it is the agricultural the problems we have highlighted are insuperable or inevitable. We sector which has caused the government most worry. BSE and foot- reject such pessimism. A new approach is needed, that links different and-mouth disease cost the Treasury an unanticipated £7 billion, on levels of government, different sectors and partners and which focus- top of the annual costs of the Common Agricultural Policy. This has es on three broad areas for policy action: health and quality of life, the been estimated as costing an average family of four people in the EU 15 shape of the food supply chain and social justice: £16 per week in taxes and additional costs. It led to the setting up of the Commission on the Future of Farming and Food, chaired by Health and quality of life Sir Donald Curry. 11 There is a strong health-based argument for public policy action. The Yet although the Curry Commission was set up to provide the main health implications of poor diet include: coronary heart disease, government with a new agenda for the supply chain, it failed to some cancers, tooth decay, diabetes, hypertension, strokes, gall- provide any detailed analysis of public health.16 The Curry
stones, obesity. In the UK, whilst problems of absolute deficiency of Commission’s policy recipe was largely motivated by a belief that calories and protein are rare, the government has accepted expert retailers should drive a new efficiency and synchronicity through the advice that an estimated 10–15 per cent of the UK population expe- supply chain. At the same time, conservation and environmental
riences food shortages due to lack of money and poor access. In the protection should be given greater prominence. There was little social main, health problems are associated with consumption of excess fats or health dimension and a dearth of local level analysis. and salt, often accompanied by a deficiency of vitamins and miner-
als. The cost of diet-related health problems is beginning to worry the
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Inconvenience food Developing a policy response
Social justice regeneration and much more, but these linkages have never been prop- Among many strands of thought in British food policy, there has long erly developed. been a tradition of blaming the poor for their own condition. A A new framework is needed for the future of food policy, based
managerialist response has been to preach the virtues of proper and around four key principles. thrifty household management. A different strand has viewed food The first is material well-being. Although we are arguing that income as a basic right. A century ago, these two perspectives famously is not the sole factor that determines poor access, it remains central
clashed when Lady Astor, the first woman MP, was campaigning for to any solution. People on low incomes need enough money to afford a parliamentary seat. Extolling the joys of making soup from cod’s a health-enhancing diet. Groups such as the Family Budget Unit have heads, Lady Astor was stopped in her tracks when a heckler asked: developed methodologies for calculating this without either being
‘but who eats the cod?’ patronising or punitive. Unless everyone has adequate income, there Until recently, debate about food poverty reflected a modern is little hope of them achieving access to decent food, particularly as equivalent of this divergence. On the one hand were those who income inequality between the richest and poorest in society contin- 20 argued that since food in supermarkets has never been cheaper, if ues to grow. people on low incomes eat a worse diet or die prematurely it must Second, there is a need for new mechanisms of food governance. The be their own fault. On the other hand were those who pointed to the recognition by the Curry Commission that environmental protection
structural determinants of food poverty and poor access, such as poor has to be a key driver of the modern food supply chain is welcome. But planning, housing without shops, a decline in rural and urban trans- social and health goals also need to be integrated with those of con- port, unsafe streets, differential pricing, childcare constraints, the servation and economy. Britain, despite its periodic food crises, still
interior design of supermarkets, lack of public conveniences, the lacks an overt, comprehensive food policy. Food governance is too physical challenges associated with high-rise living, and sheer lack often ad hoc, led by the need to be seen to be doing something to of disposable income.17 achieve public confidence. The challenges of the twenty-first century
Those who emphasise structural factors are now widely agreed to demand a more complex and ambitious approach than this. We must have won the argument. But on what basis should Government and recognise that the corporate imperative is to respond to the mass other agencies act? It is time for forces inside and outside government affluent, whilst the poor are left ever further behind.
to focus on the wider determinants of food poverty, not just on Third, there has to be action on multiple levels. On its own, action at income. An all-party coalition has recently been launched with this local or national level is insufficient. Food poverty is multi- in mind. 18 Part of the challenge is to create an inclusive food culture. dimensional: issues concerning transport, income, family and com-
This becomes ever more urgent as social inequalities continue to grow. munity, planning, culture and expectations all play a part: driven by changes at the national level and lived out locally. No one sector – gov- Four guiding principles ernment, commerce, local government, health authorities, planners,
The current state of government thinking leaves much to be desired. civil society – can deliver the necessary solutions. Alliances are the key Although the Social Exclusion Unit’s PAT13 report Access to Shops19 to success, but they need to be driven by a common vision, which is promised a fresh and creative approach, the main focus of the govern- currently lacking. ment’s subsequent action has been on general income improvement Fourth, any long-term vision should focus on the need for a common rather than on specific food targets. Welcome though this is, it is not food culture in which all engage, if not on equal terms, then at least enough. The suggestions for joined-up policy offered by the PAT13 without excessive divisions. The food supply chain needs to be encour- report require action on transport, planning, urban and rural aged to shift from its present culture, in which progress is driven by
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Inconvenience food Developing a policy response
the desire for increased market share or bigger brands, to a new cul- responsibility for defining areas of local vulnerability and managing ture which motivates the creation of diverse facilities. A common intervention around the various components of the food poverty equa- food culture would be open to all, with affordable food in accessible tion that we have outlined. We are aware that local authorities are cur- locations. It would enable people to eat well, shop alongside their fel- rently suffering under the burden of endless new initiatives. However, low citizens without shame and have the skills (whether for shopping it is only through the bringing together of the essential local stake- or cooking) to enable them to deliver a health-enhancing diet. This is holders that the complexities of food poverty can be tackled. far from what the UK has at present, but it is possible. The Curry Commission has also suggested that regional develop- ment agencies should take an important role in developing policy on Headline recommendations promotion of local foods. We support this, but a distinction needs to
be made between the development of local food systems, which are 1. Identify public institutions at all levels with an influence on food poverty, ‘niche’ markets that appeal to high income consumers, and the devel- and encourage these to adopt a new strategy. opment of inclusive local food systems that also appeal to people on
At a national level, there needs to be a rebalancing of the priorities of low incomes. the Food Standards Agency to take greater account of public interest concerns over access to nutrition and social inclusion. In addition, the 2. Create information systems to deliver an annual audit of food and social exclusion. government should consider establishing a National Food Council, a proposal all member states were asked to consider following the Food deserts cannot be drawn easily on a map because the household International Conference on Nutrition in 1992. Such a body would have coping strategies of neighbours can vary dramatically, and thus their a wider policy remit than the proposed Food Chain Centre, which was own food poverty equation. However at the local level we can define recommended by the Curry Commission, and would be more likely to areas of vulnerability to food poverty. An international system of data operate independently of the food industry. Denmark and the collection on food insecurity, known as the Food Insecurity
Netherlands have already set up publicly accountable food councils, and Vulnerability Mapping System (FIVIMS), was set up after the 1996 these are proving highly effective vehicles for co-ordinating advice to World Food Summit, in Rome.21 Currently over 50 countries produce government on food policy. data on food insecurity at the national level. The majority of these are
At a regional and local level, the PAT13 report’s diagnosis that there developing countries but three members of the European Union – are few effective mechanisms to tackle social exclusion still stands. Belgium, Germany and Italy – have a commitment to FIVIMS. We Problems of poor access and income are manifest in different forms at recommend that the UK Government set up a national FIVIMS, in line the local level. We think that each region should have its own Food with international criteria. The process of data collection should be Forum to act as a gateway for local information and initiatives. Food coordinated by the Food Forums at the local level. Forums should be meeting points where local interests can influence The FIVIMS offers a broad template for data collection but, because the food supply chain and monitor progress on public interest goals. it is framed largely by concerns over under-consumption in the devel- Directors of public health, now located in Primary Care Trusts, oping world, it would need some modification to fit the complexities together with chief executives of local authorities should jointly take of food poverty in affluent societies such as the UK. The UK needs to the lead on setting up these new Food Forums. They should include work with other EU member states to develop new indicators for food local authorities, health authorities, NGOs and citizen groups, and policy, which should include: the price of key foods, distance from should connect with existing initiatives such as Local Strategic shops, transport availability, access to information about healthy
Partnerships and Local Agenda 21. Food Forums must have eating and the broader physicality of shopping.
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Inconvenience food Developing a policy response
To monitor progress against these new indicators, the Chief Medical historically under local authority control. There needs to be a new
Officer, together with the Food Standards Agency, the Department for strategy for markets that blends the old and the new to create vibrant the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department and diverse local food economies. of Health (DoH), should undertake an annual audit of food and social exclusion. 4. Renew and revitalise our national food culture Achieving a decent diet for health and wellbeing requires multi-level 3. Inject a new social dimension into the food supply chain governance. With or without the new National Food Policy council that Government does not seem to recognise that the rapid changes in the we recommend above, the government should establish a clear policy food supply chain over recent decades are part of the problem. objective of ensuring that everyone – not just people on low income –
Searching for solutions to problems of access by rolling out new food has the confidence, knowledge and skills to achieve a good diet. delivery systems that have been designed for affluent consumers is not Existing policy has been excessively concerned with food safety and likely to succeed. Approaches such as e-commerce, home delivery and costs to farming. But if the children of today are to be healthy, happy new niche retail sites at garages need to be evaluated from the perspec- consumers of tomorrow, they will require additional skills and confi- tive of those on low incomes. Although entrepreneurial and techno- dence. A long-term shift in UK food culture is required. logical development is to be welcomed, unless they are informed by an Although in many respects the UK food scene has improved dra- understanding of social inclusion, they are likely to repeat the mistakes matically in the past fifty years, it has also fragmented. Eating out in of the past. The silence of the Curry Commission on social exclusion Britain has never been better, but our food culture and cooking skills and health has not helped. We recommend that the government have never been more uneven. We recommend that DEFRA, DoH and widens its anti-poverty strategy to inject a social dimension into policy the Department for Education and Skills develop a new strategy for on the food supply chain. public education about food. This should include additional training Existing patterns of shopping are energy and time-intensive. The for young people, but this should not be delivered through tinkering miles travelled by both consumers and food supplies continue to rise with the National Curriculum. inexorably. 22 The PAT13 report recognised the fundamental policy Government cannot ignore the ways in which powerful commercial choice: is food to come to the consumer or the consumer to the food? pressures help to mould food consciousness. In 2000, only £26 million
Yet this question remains unanswered by government policy. The UK was spent on advertising fruit and vegetables (mostly frozen or should develop a long-term framework for a socially and environ- processed) from a total food advertising spend of £600 million. The mentally sustainable food supply chain, accompanied by policies and vast majority is spent on advertising processed, value-added foods. targets that will implement this vision by 2020. This type of frame- Against this advertising juggernaut, in 2000–2001, the Foods work has been developed in Sweden, and is already starting to have Standards Agency allocated £9.7 million (5 per cent of its budget) on major consequences for re-localising the food supply chain and nutrition and health promotion.24 This inequality of food messages is 23 improving access. unacceptable. There are great possibilities for improving access to a good diet We salute the positive lead taken by the National Audit Office in its through new markets. DEFRA (and MAFF before it) has already started recent work on obesity, which recognises that the short-term gain of 25 to support farmers’ markets. These still have a tiny share of food sales, commerce may externalise costs onto wider society. Another impres- but are growing rapidly. However, they can be expensive and tend to sive example is the Government of Victoria in Australia which has appeal only to affluent consumers. Support for farmers’ markets used a local tobacco tax to create a Health Promotion Foundation that needs to be accompanied by the revitalisation of older urban markets, funds health-enhancing messages using the media, arts and sports
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Inconvenience food sponsorship. 26 The UK Government is now introducing a ban on References 10 For more examples, see Chapman, J, tobacco advertising, and this is an opportunity for it to reconsider its (2002) System Failure: Why governments must learn to think differently, London: approach to food advertising. The government should consider set- 1 Henley Centre (2001) Planning for Demos ting up a national Health Promotion Agency, modelled on the Consumer Change 2001, London: Henley Centre 11 Acheson, D, (1998) Report of the Victoria example. This could be funded by a levy on the advertising of 2 Nielson Market Research (1998) The Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in fatty, highly processed and fast foods, with the revenues to be spent Impact of Large Foodstores on Market Towns Health, London: Stationery Office; on promoting fruit and vegetables. The Food Standards Agency should and District Centres Department of Health (1996) Low also review nutritional standards in food advertising, and explore the 3 A comprehensive analysis of policy income, food, nutrition and health: strategies for improvement. Report by the scope for improvements through the Code of Advertising Standards. developments since 1997 can be found Low Income Project Team for the Nutrition in Watson, A, (2001) Food Poverty: Policy Taskforce, London: Department of Options for the new Millennium, London: 5. Ensure that low-income communities have a voice in the planning Sustain. Other important studies Health process include National Children’s Home 12 Office of National Statistics, quoted in Policy Commission on the Future of Large food retailers already have enormous influence within the UK’s (1992) Deep in Debt: a survey of problems faced by low income families, London: Farming and Food (2002) Farming and planning system, particularly through the use of ‘planning gain’, National Children’s Home. National Food: A Sustainable Future, London: whereby retailers offer to build a new roundabout, crèche or school, in Cabinet Office, p15 Food Alliance (1995) Food and low 13 Hawkes, C, (2000) A Battle in Store?: A return for local authority permission to build a new supermarket. This income: a conference report, London: influence is likely to be increased by the current planning review, which National Food Alliance. Dowler, E, discussion of the social impact of the major looks set to marginalise wider public interests in order to speed up the (2001) Poverty Bites, London: Child UK supermarkets, London: Sustain 14 Competition Commission (2000). planning process. There is a real danger that this will intensify the Poverty Action Group 4 Henley Centre (2000) Planning for Supermarkets: a report on the supply of problem of food poverty, and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Consumer Change 2000, London: Henley groceries from multiple stores in the United which is leading the current planning review, must take food poverty Centre Kingdom, London: The Stationery Office 15 Setting aside the CAP – the future for into account in any new legislation. People on low incomes must be 5 Office for National Statistics food production, (2001) Policy Report, given a stronger voice within the planning system, so that issues such 6 Leather, S, (1996) The Making of Modern London: Consumers Association, p8 as access to shops – in all of its constituent parts explored above – are Malnutrition The Caroline Walker Trust; 16 Policy Commission on the Future of not sidelined. Dowler, E and Calvert, C, (1995) Nutrition and Diet in Lone-Parent Families Farming and Food (2002) Farming and in London, London: Family Policy Studies Food: A Sustainable Future, London: Centre Cabinet Office, www.cabinet-
7 Fox, J and Benzeval, M, (1995) office.gov.uk/farming/ 17 See eg Carley, M, Kirk, K and ‘Perspectives on social variations in McIntosh, S, (2001) Retailing, health’ in Tackling Inequalities in Health, ed Benzeval, M, Judge, K and sustainability and neighbourhood Whitehead, M, London: King’s Fund regeneration, York: Joseph Rowntree 8 Best, R, (1995) ‘The housing Foundation; Pickering, J, et al. (1998) dimension’ in Tackling Inequalities in The Future of the Neighbourhood Store,
Health, ed Benzeval, M, Judge, K, and Durham Reports on Retail Futures 1.
Whitehead, M, London: King’s Fund Durham: University Business School 18 Food Poverty Eradication Bill and 9 Politicus journal (2002) March/April, Food Justice Campaign, see: special issue on ’Liveability’ www.foodjustice.org.uk
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Inconvenience food
19 Social Exclusion Unit (1999) Further reading Improving shopping access for people living in deprived neighbourhoods. Report of Policy Caplan, C, (1997) Food, Health and Action Team 13 of the Social Exclusion Unit, Identity, London: Routledge London: Department of Health for the Craig, G and Dowler, E, ‘Let Them Eat Social Exclusion Unit / Cabinet Office Cake! Poverty, Hunger and the UK 20 http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/ State’ in Riches, G (ed) (1997) First life_sciences/health/nutrition/fbu.html World Hunger: Food Security and Welfare
21 http://www.fivims.net/ Politics, London: Macmillan
22 Jones, A (2001), Eating Oil, London: Gordon, D et al., (2000) Poverty and social Sustain exclusion in Britain, York: Joseph 23 Swedish Environmental Protection Rowntree Foundation Agency (1999), A Sustainable Food Supply Harrison, M and Lang, T, (1997) Running Chain. Report 4966, Stockholm: SEPA on empty, Demos Collection 12, 24 Food Standards Agency (2001), London: Demos Strategic Plan 2001–2006, London: FSA James, WPT et al., (1997) The p20 Contributions of Nutrition to Inequalities 25 National Audit Office (2001) Tackling in Health, British Medical Journal Obesity in England, London: National 1997: 314, 1545–9 Audit Office Piachaud, D and Webb, J, (1996) The 26 Victoria Health Promotion Price of Food: Missing out on Mass Foundation (2002). Consumption, London: London School www.vichealth.vic.gov.au of Economics Watson, A, (2001) Food Poverty: Policy
Options for the new Millennium, London:
Sustain
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This page is covered by the Demos open access licence. Some rights reserved. Full details of licence conditions are available at www.demos.co.uk/openaccess