When There Isn’t Enough to Eat
ANGLICARE (Diocese of Sydney) completed a pilot study amongst clients of an emergency relief (ER) service in Wollongong in February-March 2005, concerning their struggles to obtain adequate food for themselves and their households. This study has not only revealed the reality of food insecurity in an economically strong country such as Australia, but has also described this experience in detail.
Food insecurity involves not being able to afford enough food, and enough of the right kinds of food, obtained in ways that are considered socially acceptable. It can involve worrying about food running out, cutting meal sizes, going without meals, and hunger pangs. This experience is encapsulated in a measure of food insecurity developed by the United States Department of Agriculture, called the Food Security Survey Module (FSSM).It was slightly modified by the researchers after cognitive testing.
The FSSM measure of food insecurity was completed by 117 of the 121 respondents in the study. Of these, 95% were found to be food insecure, meaning that they experienced some level of food insecurity at least once in the three months prior to being surveyed. Adults frequently went hungry in a quarter of the households surveyed. Of the households with children, 70 percent did not have enough food; children in 22% of such households (14 cases) experienced hunger. Whilst this reflects the nature of the service, it identifies a harsh reality for people who have been left out of the spoils of Australia’s economic growth. This group of people provided some richly valuable information about what this experience is like, how they manage and what the impacts are in their lives.
Food insecure respondents were mostly aged between 30-49 years (62%) and were born in Australia (89%). A significant number were of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin (13%). The majority of food insecure respondents were either single parents (30%) or lived alone (28%), and rented (82%). Children were found in over half of all food insecure households (59%).
The sole source of household income for 75% of food insecure households was government benefits. In fact, the largest proportion of the sample comprised households that were both dependent on government benefits and food insecure with hunger (55% of the total 121 respondents).
Outlining the experience of food insecurity in households reveals that 80% cut the size of their meals, 74% skipped meals and 52% did not eat for a whole day. Amongst households with children, 67% of respondents could not afford to feed their children the variety of food they though their children needed. Furthermore, parents were forced to cut the size of their child’s meal in 35% of cases and 14% of children skipped meals.
These experiences mostly occurred because of a lack of money for food. However, another survey question identified the various reasons why respondents lack enough food or enough variety of food. The main reasons, after not enough money for food (89%) related to the cost of transport in going to buy food (44%), the cost of food in respondent’s area (43%) and that there was no one with whom they could share the cost of food (40%). Furthermore, when asked about the expenses incurred that left little money for food, the main ones cited related to basic living costs such as gas and electricity (59%), phone (27%) and housing (19%).
Respondents showed a wide variety of coping mechanisms, such as seeking help from an ER service (88%), putting off paying a bill (79%), asking to extend the due date for a bill (77%) and pawning or selling personal belongings (63%), amongst others. Respondents with children went without in order to minimise the severity of the children’s experience. In households with children, the children were food secure almost 5 times more than the adults and they experienced hunger 3 times less than the adults. In households with children, 4.6 times more adults than children skipped meals. In most cases when children skipped meals, the whole household was food insecure with hunger. This confirms other research in this area.
Respondents were also asked about their experience of ER services in the Illawarra. Positive comments were given by 80% of respondents. However, 35% of respondents also provided negative comments or suggested improvements. The two main issues related to the way they were treated by the services (13 comments), and the inappropriateness or inadequacy of the food provided (9 comments). These comments were either attributed to a specific agency or an agency was not named. This minority of comments nonetheless provides helpful advice to agencies wishing to evaluate and improve their service provision and volunteer training.
The final area of results in this report relates to comments from respondents about how not having enough to eat impacts on people. Whilst respondents were not asked how they were personally impacted, the fact that 95% of the sample was found to be food insecure – and 75% went hungry - leads to the reasonable assumption that in many cases, people were speaking from their own experience. Indeed, many used the fi rst person tense in their response. Comments related to a number of areas, including emotional / psychological impacts (65% of respondents spoke about this impact), physical impacts (49%), the effects on energy and
performance (34%), impacts on people socially and in their relationships (26%), impacts on parents and children (19%), and various other impacts (10%).
The report ends with a discussion of some possible responses to food insecurity at local and broader levels. Possible ways forward include ways in which emergency relief services can be better equipped to be more effective players in Australia’s system of social support services; ways in which the Federal Government can enhance income support for low income people; ways in which the NSW Government can address issues of food insecurity; as well as local interventions that could be undertaken. The report calls for further research, in particular research that contributes towards the development of a national set of food insecurity indicators.
