It is an honour for the Combat Poverty Agency, CROSSCARE and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to have an opportunity to address the joint committee. As the Chairman noted, the three organisations, in a kind of tripartite arrangement, recently published a report on food policy and poverty. I propose to distil the main points of the study in a short synopsis, after which I will highlight a number of policy areas which fit within the agriculture and food remit of the joint committee. I have circulated a summary of the overhead powerpoint presentation.
The report defines food poverty as "the inability to access a nutritionally adequate diet and the related impacts on health, culture and social participation." Food poverty could be considered old hat because the issue of the lack of food is central to the experience of poverty. One cannot imagine poverty without thinking of not having enough food. However, there has been a reluctance to address the issue of food as part of the poverty issue because of the sense of stigma and other factors.
Over the last years, all aspects of food, such as safety and consumption, have been on the public agenda. This has filtered into the analysis of poverty, causing a revaluation of the role of food as a central element of what it means to be poor in Ireland. A second element in food poverty is that it highlights specific barriers related to the access of foods. It is not just a question of inadequate income but also structural barriers which cause inequalities in people's ability to access nutritionally good quality food. Food poverty gets across the idea of specific constraints.
Food poverty is also an important issue because of its knock-on effects in other social domains. There has been much debate about health inequalities. It is increasingly recognised that social factors to do with food and diet are at the root of these inequalities, highlighting the strong link between food poverty and health inequalities. It is timely that this issue has been identified as one component of the wider poverty debate.
The Government's measure of consistent poverty combines income and deprivation of basic necessities. Three of the eight basic necessities are food related items. They include one substantial meal every day, the ability to have chicken, meat, fish or an equivalent every second day and the ability to have a roast or an equivalent once a week. The latest figures show that approximately 200,000 people, 5% of the population, are deprived of these basic necessities and are income poor, or as the Government classifies, consistently poor. This is the basic starting point of the numbers experiencing food poverty. Other evidence of food poverty, adduced in the report, shows how low income groups eat less well than better-off groups. Low income groups have specific difficulties in accessing nutritional food because of physical and shopping constraints. They spend proportionately more of their income — over 30% — on their food. This results in them being squeezed in the amount of money they are already spending on food, thus reducing the scope to spend more. They are also restricted in their food preferences by social and cultural norms.
Food poverty has not passed society by as there have been a number of different responses though they tend to be ad hoc rather than coherent. After the debate on inadequate welfare payments, the Government set a target in that regard. Having an adequate income is crucial to being able to buy enough food. There has been a debate on new initiatives in enhancing school meals. Emphasis has been placed on health education and promotion of proper nutrition by establishing community nutritionists. While the food production and distribution debate has been dominated by issues of food safety, there is the example of food banks acting as bridge between surplus foods and their distribution. The one existing food bank is based in Dublin.
The primary recommendation of the report is the need for a strategic framework to address food poverty. Having interviewed many stakeholders, surveyed the ad hoc initiatives and looked at best practice in the UK and other countries, the report recommends a co-ordinated approach to the issue as part of the national anti-poverty strategy. Poverty is often described as a multidimensional problem and food poverty is a classic example of such a problem. There are many aspects to the problem such as nutrition, purchasing power and access to food. Surprisingly, the national anti-poverty strategy makes no reference to food poverty, which highlights the recent currency of the concept. The strategy should provide a vehicle for a co-ordinated approach to food poverty based on the social partnership model of special initiatives under the social partnership agreement. As part of that co-ordinated approach, a national food and nutritional policy is needed, the core of which should be to ensure that everyone had access sufficient nutritional food. This can be supported by a cross-departmental team with national and local implementation.
Specific policy initiatives on food must be introduced. These include enhancing access to affordable food, improving living standards of people in poverty through welfare supports, addressing gaps in dietary knowledge, supporting community food initiatives and developing selective food provision. "Selective" is a key word as we are not advocating food stamps or mechanisms for the mass provision of food. There is a role for selective food provision for vulnerable groups through means such as homeless hostels, meals on wheels and school dinners.
Access to affordable food pertains to the remit of the committee. Concern was highlighted in the report that the cost of food is influenced in a negative way by the Common Agricultural Policy and by distributors and processors. There are particular localities where it is difficult to buy food because there are few if any shops while those available have a restricted range of foods. This is an urban and rural problem but is particularly stark in urban areas where one shop may serve a community of 5,000 people. These food deserts have seen the decline of the traditional corner shop. Stronger retail planning guidelines are needed as the out-of-town shopping centres undermine the viability of local shops. While in other countries local food co-operatives have been developed as alternative mechanisms to facilitate access to food in disadvantaged areas, in Ireland there is only one in Southhill. I have noted the growth of food markets but they tend to cater for the higher end of the market. Could they not be supported in terms of low income groups?
The industry produces surplus food. Can such food be harnessed in a more socially progressive way? This would entail expanding the role of food banks, which act as intermediaries between the producing and the distributing sectors and direct provision in a socially beneficial mode. That highlights, in particular, the role of corporate social responsibility. This is a theme of the national anti-poverty strategy. What is the role of the private sector in responding to social issues in society? There is a really good opportunity here for the food sector — farmers and producers — to demonstrate, in a tangible way, corporate social responsibility by entering into some type of contract arrangement whereby they allocate a certain percentage of their food production to food banks for socially beneficial purposes. There is not only a message for the State or for public agents in this report — there is also a strong message for voluntary groups and for the private sector.
We are having a round table discussion this Friday with the food sector to commemorate, or to mark, world food day which is on 16 October. In November, the Combat Poverty Agency is holding a national conference on nutrition and health to look at these issues from a health perspective. This is an issue which is going to run and run.