Thursday 15 April 2010

Foodbank for Kent

I came across this definition of food poverty recently in a National Consumer Council document:

Food poverty is the inability to acquire or consume an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so.

Another interesting passage in the NCC document is a description of food access.

The term 'food access' takes into consideration the complexity of factors that affect a person's ability to obtain sufficient, adequate food for good health- including having enough money to buy food, being physically able to walk or drive to shops which can provide this, and understanding how to prepare and use healthy foods.

It is estimated that four million people in the UK cannot afford a healthy diet and one in five parents, and one in ten children, regularly go hungry because they do not have enough money for food.

The links between poverty and deprivation and ill-health and premature death are now widely acknowledged.

A foodbank for Kent will provide a major resource to tackle these issues.

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