Food insecurity
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Nobody should go to
bed hungry.
We’re mapping food insecurity in the UK.
Evaluating current government interventions, so we can find effective solutions.
This is the future.
And it will be Sheffield made.
Mapping food insecurity in the UK
Nobody should go to bed hungry. Yet in more than half of all UK local authorities, one in ten households struggle to have enough food.
For the first time, the extent of food insecurity in the UK has been mapped at a Local Authority level by researchers at the University of Sheffield.
This research, which is now helping councillors and MPs understand the challenges faced in their locality, has already been discussed in the House of Commons, and has been requested by the House of Lords for the Parliamentary Library. The data is helping local authorities determine the services and support needed to achieve food security for everyone, and move beyond a focus on food banks.
“We don’t want to just highlight the problems we face, we want to work together towards a solution - to build a sustainable food system that tackles food insecurity in the pandemic and beyond.”
As well as mapping food insecurity, we’re also monitoring government and local interventions designed to tackle it during the pandemic. We are working directly with people who have lived experience of food access issues, as well as policy makers and practitioners, so we can design policy solutions based on what works. The research team has examined school food alternatives, emergency finance provision, emergency food systems and grocery box schemes for people who were shielding.
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Building a secure sustainable food system
Researchers from our Institute for Sustainable Food are working with Defra, DWP, Public Health England, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government to design policy solutions that tackle food insecurity, based on what works.
We have the expertise to develop policy interventions across the four pillars of food insecurity: affordability, availability, utilisation and consistency. We are calling on the Government to take a system-wide approach to tackling food insecurity across each pillar.
We’re also calling for access to data at a smaller geographical scale to understand the challenges faced on a local level and determine which interventions will have the most impact in each area.
To find out more, or work with us on this most urgent issue, contact sustainablefood@sheffield.ac.uk
"Ensuring nobody goes to bed hungry is a huge challenge. Doing this while meeting sustainability targets will require a collaborative approach between academic researchers, local and national government, industry and the third sector.
That’s why we work with the people involved in producing, supplying and eating food. We don’t want to just highlight the problems we face, we want to work together towards a solution - to build a sustainable food system that tackles food insecurity in the pandemic and beyond.”
- Duncan Cameron & Peter Jackson, co-Directors of the Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield.
