Food and Nutrition
Insecurity: Challenging
Australian Families and
Communities
Rebecca McKechnie and Danielle Gallegos
Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies Conference, Sydney 2014
S
Defining food and nutrition
security
Food and nutrition security exists when all people at all
times have physical, social and economic access to food,
which is safe and consumed in sufficient quantity and
quality to meet their dietary needs and food preferences,
and is supported by an environment of adequate
sanitation, health services and care, allowing for a
healthy and active life.” (Committee on World Food
Security, FAO 2012)
Nutrition security
S Not just about household
insufficiency
S Increased availability of
cheap easily accessible poor
quality foods creates a
normative culture of
unhealthy diets
S Polarises high value foods for
the rich and low value foods
for the poor
(Dowler and O’Connor 2012)
© Danielle Gallegos
Are Australians food secure?
Food security status - ABS
NHS
5%
Food
insecure
Food secure
95%
S National Health Survey
S Single item: “In the past
12 months, have you or
anyone in your
household run out of
food and not had
enough money to
purchase more”
S Consistently reports a
food insecurity
prevalence of 5%
884, 000
Australian households
potentially experience
food insecurity in any
given year.
Are Australians food secure?
S Adapted USDA FSSM
tool
S 25% prevalence:
disadvantaged
households Sydney
(Nolan et al 2006);
Brisbane (Ramsey
et al 2012); tertiary
students (Gallegos
et al 2013).
Food insecurity among
disadvantaged areas of Brisbane
Food secure
Low food
security
Very low food
security
Very low food
security among
children
-Insufficient transport
- Household structure
- Residential location
Food insecurity
-Low income/ poverty
- SEP
-Ethnicity/ immigration
- Age
-Food skills
-Marital status
-Decreased social capital
- Depression/ anxiety
-Insufficient access to nutritious/
culturally acceptable food
- Insufficient access to shops
containing food
-Inability to obtain food in socially
acceptable ways
- Increased consumption
energy dense
convenience foods
- Skipping meals/
periods of fasting (often
followed by periods of
binging)
- Overweight/ obesity
-Decreased consumption
core foods
- Decrease in variety of
foods
- Decrease in portion
sizes
-Inadequate intake corefood groups
-Inadequate nutrient
intakes
- Irregular growth/
development
-Poor academic
achievement
-Behavioral problems
-Development of
chronic/ diet-related
disease
-Poor general health
- Increased visits to
doctor/ hospital
Food insecurity among Australian
households with children
16.2
4.76
S Households with a parent born
outside Australia 60% less likely
to be food insecure
S Households with unemployed
parent over 3 x more likely to be
food insecure
S Single parent with children 89%
more likely to be food insecure
Food insecurity among Australian
households with children
S Children from food insecure
8.43
households:
S 3 x more likely to display
atypical emotions &
behaviours
S 2 – 4 times more likely to
display borderline/ atypical
hyperactivity tendencies
S 2 x more likely to display
borderline pro-social
behaviour
3.42
What are we doing
about it?
S
Systemic failure
S Unmet food needs are hidden
S Ongoing state reliance on non-
government agencies to feed
the people
S Reliance on mechanisms that
redistribute food openly
encouraged
Questions to ask?
Are most Australians food secure?
Do most Australians have access to affordable healthy
food options?
Is the income safety net adequate to meet needs?
Is it just about making sure individuals have more
information?
Who should be responsible for ensuring ALL
Australians get a decent feed on a regular basis?
Healthy foods are more expensive
than less healthy choices
S
Healthy Food Access Basket
S Prices of healthy foods have increased more
than unhealthy foods
S
In QLD cost of the HFAB rose 50% from
1998-2006-cf CPI 32.5% (Harrison et al
2010)
S
In NSW prices of vegetables, fruits and
extra foods rose 55.7%, 47.2% and 22.7%
respectively (Williams et al 2009)
S Energy dense, low-nutrient foods cost less than
nutrient rich foods; (Landrigan and Pollard,
2012; Brimblecombe and O’Dea 2009).
Retrograde step – GST on fresh
food
“An independent think tank says it has come up with a
package of reforms that could add around $37
billion a year to the bottom line of Australian
government budgets.
The package includes broadening the GST net to
include fresh food and private spending on health
and education, as well as a lifting of the age at
which Australians can access their pension or
superannuation to 70.”
ABC News 25 November 2013
Affordability decreases for those on
lower incomes
S 20-40% of income is spent on a diet consistent with the Australian
“My food
has disappeared
Dietary Guidelines
for a budget
range of different
family types (Lee et al
2011)
My son’s health is affected
S
S
Cheap food,
For welfare dependent families a healthy diet costs a minimum of 40%
Carbohydrates,
of disposable income (Givoni and Palermo, 2010; Kettings et al 2009)
You get fat.
No vegetables
in nearly
A typical family
on welfare support
in Adelaide needs to spend 33% of
their household
income toACOSS,
purchase an2013
adequate healthy diet
3 weeks”
compared to 9% in families on higher incomes (Wong et al 2011)
No one in Australia should go without:
A decent and secure home
Secure locks on doors and windows
Roof and gutters that do not leak
Furniture in reasonable condition
Two Washing
parent family/two
machine
children
Heating in at least one room of the house
Spendsand
approx
$292for
on cold
foodperiods
Warm clothes
bedding
Insurance – home contents
BASIC
STANDARD
A substantial
meal at OF
leastLIVING
once a day
TV
Computer skills
Telephone
Insurance – car comprehensive
Up to $500 emergency savings
Regular social contact
Unemployed single
One weeks holiday away each year Spends approx $78 on
Single parent two
Presents for family and friends
children
food
Spends approx $180 on Medical treatment when required
Prescription medications
food
Dental treatment
Separate
bed fortwo
each
child
Single parent
children
Booksif and
new
clothes
for school
move
from
parenting
QCOSS, Nov 2013
payment to Newstart
+$88
-$11
-$22
-$139
Australia’s food safety net
http://sydney.edu.au/news/staff/2576.html?newsstoryid=7573
S
Australia has indicated that unlike
other countries welfare payments
are adequate to provide food
S
Primary reason for using ER is for
food
S
ER agencies report increasing use
and increased number of repeat
visits
S Volunteer staff
S Increased staff turnover
S Inadequate funding
S
Criteria for use
S
Does this meet the criteria for
maintaining human dignity?
The alternative……. individualised
responses
S Budgeting skills
S Education
S Cooking skills
S Community
gardens/grow your
own
Like I went to the (youth service)
class, they were making muffins and
I was
like, “excuse me, I don’t have an
oven, right, this has like 11
ingredients in
it, right, and I don’t have an oven
or a cake tray or like, what’s
wrong with
you? Why are (you) teaching
homeless people how to make
muffins right?”
(Vidgen, 2013)
http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/how-to-cut-your-food-budget-in-half
Where to from here?
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/aug/24/john-howard-davies-obituary
What do we plan to do to significantly reduce food insecurity. We reject the
argument that people are to blame for their food insecurity. Or that food
insecurity will decrease simply by making the economy stronger.
FAO 2008
Utilisation
Stability
Access
Availability
Food Security
Acknowledgement of needs
FAO 2008
Rule of law
Transparency
Participation
Non-discrimination
Empowerment
Accountability
Human dignity
Utilisation
Stability
Access
Availability
A rights-based approach to food security
Right to adequate food
Acknowledgement of human rights
An anti-poverty strategy that incorporates a food safety net
that encompasses quality and quantity of food at affordable
prices
No GST on fresh food from core food groups
Increase the NewStart allowance by $50 a week
A systematic policy response to food price monitoring and
modelling in relation to minimum wages and remoteness
Recognition of the minimum wage required in order to meet
household needs including accessing a diet conducive to
health
Sensitive, regular national monitoring of food security
A change of focus from education to environments in
recognition that price and access are powerful motivators of
consumption
Stop thinking of food security as just about production at the
national level – start thinking of it across the four pillars
with health and wellbeing as a central tenet across
households and communities
References
Australian Council of Social Services. Back to Basics: Simplifying Australia's Family Payments System to Tackle Child Poverty. Sydney, Australia: ACOSS, 2013.
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Committee on World Food Security. 2012. Coming to Terms with Terminology: Food Security, Nutrition Security, Food Security and Nutrition, Food and Nutrition Security
Rome, Italy: Food and Agricultural Organisation, 2012.
Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry. National Food Plan: Our Food Future. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia 2013.
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Food and Agricultural Organisation. Methods to Monitor the Human Right to Adequate Food: Volume II An Overview of Approaches and Tools. Rome: FAO 2008.
Gallegos, Danielle, Ramsey, Rebecca, & Ong, Kai (2013) Food insecurity: is it an issue among tertiary students. Higher Education. (In Press)
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Salvation Army Australia, 2012. The economic and social impact of cost of living pressures on people accessing emergency relief. A national survey. May 2012.
Vidgen, H. Food Literacy What is it and Does it Influence what we eat? Phd Thesis 2013
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