,
18 tweets,
14 min read
Read on Twitter
Thread #UKPoverty #FoodPoverty 1/ The scale of food poverty in the UK, the fifth richest economy in the world, and its rapid increase over recent years is staggering. I've been researching this for @hrw for just over a year. hrw.org/news/2018/11/2… 
2/ So many important things are happening today on this issue, each one of which on its own should make the government and all of us sit up and take notice. There is no excuse for looking away.
3/ The @TrussellTrust's annual figures are out. They do not make for easy reading. A 19% increase in the last year alone. Read their blog on what they see driving people to seek food aid. trusselltrust.org/news-and-blog/…
4/ And as @IFAN_UK's @sabineegoodwin always reminds us, the Trust's figures are just the visible tip of the food poverty iceberg. The scale is much greater. See her recent blog for @CLASSthinktank classonline.org.uk/blog/item/brit… and IFAN's map here: foodaidnetwork.org.uk/mapping
5/ The Children's Future Food Inquiry @CFFinquiry is launching its report today on food poverty among children, healthy eating, school meals, and much more. They are calling for a Children's Food Insecurity watchdog for the UK foodfoundation.org.uk/the-childrens-…
6/ Meanwhile in Newcastle @NCLLawSchool is hosting expert voices to talk about the rights to food and social security, and hearing from people with lived experience as part of their #5giants19 conference today. Learn more from @Article22UK and @NclUni_IHS
7/ Later today, experts from the UK, US and Canada will speak on a @foodpoverty_uk @UKSustain seminar about the right to food, charitable food aid, and the dangers of institutionalizing food poverty - still time left to sign up
8/ Just yesterday, I was at a foodbank in rural Cambridgeshire. This couple with three kids (they were on their way to pick up the oldest one at school), told me that the welfare benefit cap meant they no longer had enough to pay their rent and were left to rely on handouts.
9/ Have a look at what a "large family" gets from a food bank for an emergency three day supply. How has it come to this?
10/ The UK government can and should do much more. It should respect people's right to an adequate standard of living. That means an anti-hunger strategy. And improving welfare benefit levels, fixing welfare system problems,, ensuring safety nets and measuring food insecurity.
11/ This isn't rocket science. What sort of society leaves its least well off in a situation where they do not have enough food to put on their table, and continues with implementing an ill-thought through welfare restructure that exacerbates the problem? /end
* (consider these footnotes: twitter etiquette is never to continue a thread after having said "/end"). Follow, in addition to those tagged above, @Sumi_RabindraK @GazLemon @EverydayHunger @LindsayGrahamUK @nourishscotland @KA_Garthwaite @rloopstra @aaronreeves @hlambiemumford...
** … @imogen_rb @niallcooper1 @churchpoverty @koldo_casla @EndHunger_UK @EmmaLewellBuck @frankfieldteam @helpmyfoodbank @sdrsineadfurey @r_oconnell ... and the list goes on. Please feel free to include any omissions (fault all mine) to this thread here. 👇🏾
I’m totally breaking with all acceptable thread behaviour, but it’s now the following day, and I’d like to add some follow up reading as further footnotes. So here goes with some suitably twiddly footnote symbols...
† this from Jubilee+ @JubileePlus - h/t @sabineegoodwin
† † And this piece by @FoodEthicsNews @dan_crossley (who ought to have been on my list of people to follow - sorry Dan!) on the risk of institutionalising charitable responses to hunger potentially perpetuating the problem.
‡ The @NewStatesman ran a good piece which brought together the structural criticism with important voices from the front line newstatesman.com/politics/welfa…
‡ ‡ And this piece by south London MP @MarshadeCordova highlighting the particularly harsh impact on people with disabilities theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
