Blog Action Day 16th October Let's Talk About #inequality: Greater Manchester Food Poverty Week

Thursday 16th October is Blog Action Day #BAD14, supported by Oxfam. This year, Blog Action Day is tackling #inequality, a universal theme across society internationally and one that charities like Oxfam work tirelessly to combat.

This week - 13th - 19th October is also food poverty week in Greater Manchester (www.manchesterfoodpoverty.co.uk)  - a week encouraging businesses in Manchester to take action tackling the #inequality of food poverty.

One in 10 people in Greater Manchester said they skipped meals so a family member could eat, the joint highest number in the UK along with Glasgow and Birmingham.
source: Greater Manchester Poverty Commission

The Trussell Trust currently runs 17 food banks in Greater Manchester. The charity has plans to open more to meet demand.
source: Manchester Evening News

With companies like Eversheds, Kellogg's, Trafford Housing Trust and Shoosmoths supporting charities such as Trussell Trust, Fareshare, Business in the Community and Forever Manchester, it's a great movement to address the inequality raised by the fact that some are being deprived a basic human function such as eating, and eating well.

There is currently no established measure of food poverty in the UK (unlike the measure for fuel poverty). This is despite the fact that the average UK household spends more than twice as much on food as it does on utilities.  People’s spending on food adjusts according to their situation and some families struggling to make ends meet will cut back on food expenditure and may even go without meals such as breakfast.

Food poverty Week also raises fundamental questions about how we tackle inequality - by addressing food poverty with solutions such as food banks are we inadvertently widening the gap by increasing dependence on handouts? Yet how can we address the immediacy of there being children in Greater Manchester who don't start the day with the proper fuel to thrive without immediate support.

Addressing inequality isn't easy and knowing what the right solution is can be a real challenge, and one that asks those involved to come up with creative solutions, investing a large amount of time and energy into projects. But activity such as Food Poverty Week and Blog Action Day ensure that the conversations are being had and that inequality isn't being ignored. And it seems to me that that is the first part of the battle.