Food insecurity and poverty. A thread.

Firstly, before I begin, some definitions. Food SECURITY is about secure access to enough food, and about being able to source, prepare, and eat food in culturally and socially appropriate ways - ways that are dignifying and which support well-being.

having to resort to emergency supplies such as food banks is NOT having food security. Having to go without or borrow money for food or be humiliated at the welfare office or beg or scavenge or steal - these are coping strategies but they do not provide food security for ppl

I am genuinely APPALLED at the number of wealthy, food secure ppl who actually think such coping strategies are socially acceptable for hungry ppl to endure for food. Let me be very clear: coping strategies are NOT dignifying and should NEVER have to occur, esp in wealthy nations

...and such coping strategies should NEVER EVER be promoted as a solution to food insecurity.

The thing about coping strategies, is that ppl who are food secure often take those very sensible decisions and strategies and use them as evidence of the ineptitude of those living with poverty. Take this image, one of the most enduring & emotional images (for me) from my PhD:

This was a week's worth of shopping. Being able to pay for power is a luxury when you have very few funds. Everything in this trolley can be stored in a pantry - handy if you have no fridge. Everything can be cooked using a microwave or kettle - uses less power that way.

Not only that, but the items here require minimal cooking - handy when you're tired and stressed and your brain isn't working so well due to the stress of poverty. Plus they taste good! and fill you up! So you at least you enjoy your meal and feel like you've had a good feed.

This isn't rocket science, but when you're living with grinding, relentless poverty every damn day, at least you can find joy in eating something, even if it's only noodles.

Again, it does my head in seeing wealthy, food secure ppl having the absolute temerity to food shame and cook shame those who are deliberately under-resourced, over-stressed, and doing their very best. What ppl need is secure access to sufficient food in a dignified manner.

The other thing that needs to stop is well-meaning folk separating hungry ppl into those "deserving" of food support & those who are "undeserving". Both are arbitrary notions & utterly ridic. But also it's food! Food is a human right not something we "deserve" by "being good" FFS

As soon as we start separating people in need of food support into those we determine deserving and those who are not, we create barriers to accessing support, we create shame and stigma, we erode solidarity and kindness, and we end up denying whole swathes of ppl in need.

And that is how you end up with families rationing food & going hungry; it is the shame & stigma that gets perpetuated when you create barriers to support/implement punitive approaches/humiliate ppl. It leaves ppl feeling unable to ask for help even when they really need support.

There is always more to say, but I shall end by saying that wealthy UK Tories refusing to provide food relief for hungry, stressed, impoverished families during a global pandemic is just the most ridic, punitive, cruel, nasty, effed up thing I've heard in some time. M*rF*rs.