Government must learn from unacceptable food parcels

EB News: 09/04/2021 - 10:59

In a new report, the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has recommended that the Government should ensure that families with children eligible for free school meals continue to be able to feed their children in the event of another lockdown.

The report also calls on the Government to learn from the unacceptable food parcels provided by some suppliers in January, and ensure that 'any future offering is consistently up to standard'.

The report highlights that almost 1 in 10 households experienced food poverty during the two most recent national lockdowns, and urged the Government to appoint a new Minster for Food Security and consult on a national 'right to food' in England.

The Committee also recommends that with the number of people experiencing food insecurity likely to have worsened as a result of lockdowns, the Government should conduct an annual food security report, sustaining this frequency until the combined economic fallout of covid-19 and Brexit has passed.

Neil Parish MP, Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, said: "During the covid crisis, different Government departments pulled together to make sure that the most vulnerable in our society were fed. This should set a precedent. We have a duty to ensure that access to enough nutritious food is a fundamental right for everyone in the UK, which is why, for the second time in a year, our Committee urge the Government to appoint a new Minister specifically to address food security.

"The Government must now learn lessons from the pandemic, using the teething problems it encountered in distributing food to ensure that, in 'normal times', disadvantaged groups- such as those without internet access- do not slip between the cracks.

"It also has a responsibility to support businesses right the way through the food supply chain. As hospitality opens up from next Monday, additional financial support must be provided to its suppliers, else the funding rightly given to pubs, restaurants and cafes to get them through the lockdown will be wasted."