Funding cuts cut potential.
A government decision to reduce funding to community providers has resulted in the Auckland City Mission – Te Tāpui Atawhai having to significantly reduce the number of food parcels distributed to families who need them.
Currently, 1 in 5 New Zealanders do not have enough food to meet their health and wellbeing needs. The cost of not providing the food needed will, at the simplest level, increase pressure across our health and criminal justice systems, and result in lost productivity. Providing food support allows people to engage in education, employment, and positive social connections.
"A new UN report shows that New Zealand has much higher rates of food insecurity than comparable countries - and those rates are growing." - The Spinoff, July 31st 2024.
Understanding Food Insecurity in Aotearoa
Food insecurity is about more than hunger. Hunger is a physiological experience caused by a lack of food – a person can feel hungry if they are running late and skip breakfast. Food insecurity, which is also called food poverty, is not having enough appropriate food. Food insecurity is driven by systems, but experienced by individual people.
Today we ask you, Aotearoa to see the reality of food insecurity in our midst. To see the depth of suffering in our country, and the indignity and harm that comes from not having enough to eat.
Below we have linked relevant resources, including recent media, reports and literature.
Around the world, food insecurity is improving.
In New Zealand it’s getting worse.
"The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation released its 2024 report into the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, compiling information from member countries, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank... New Zealand’s worsening food insecurity sets this country apart from many other OECD countries, according to the FAO information."
The Spinoff | July 31st, 2024
We don’t know what we don’t know about food security
"Why have our governments never done a national food security assessment?"
Newsroom | 11th Feb, 2024
The global food system is owned by an ever smaller number of companies
"Across the world, more than 800 million people spend their days hungry. More than two billion have limited access to food. Yet today’s global food system produces enough to feed every person on the planet."
NZ Herald | 25th July, 2024
Realising Food Secure Communities in Aotearoa
"A review of locally-led reports, plans and strategies about local aspirations to realise communities that are food secure in Aotearoa. This review adds to our wider project where we are using a collaborative process to learn from and share with others, as well as learning from Te Ao Māori wisdom and international literature"
Kore Hiakai report 2023
Rebalancing our food system report
"In January 2023 the Minister of Health commissioned the PHAC to prepare advice on the food ‘system’: all of the structures and processes between the production of food and eating or drinking it. This independent report takes a public health focus, looking at changes to the food system that could help improve the health and wellbeing of people of New Zealand."
Food for Thought: The cost of living crunch is forcing double income families and the elderly to food banks - Angela Calver
"What if I told you that the face of food insecurity is changing? Data from the New Zealand Food Network found that on average, over a third of their Food Hubs’ monthly recipients have never needed to seek their support before."
Food poverty in teens creating an achievement lag of up to 4 years
"Of the 25 OECD countries who provided data on food poverty, NZ had the second highest rate of students who, in the previous 30 days, had missed a meal at least once a week because there was not enough money to buy food (14.1%). This was well above the OECD average of 8.2%."
Rising Food Insecurity felt most by Pacific, Māori and disabled children
"Food insecurity matters because it has been linked to nutritionally inadequate diets, iron deficiency anaemia, multiple chronic conditions, obesity, type 2 diabetes and poor self-rated physical and mental health."
Ka Mākona - Kore Hiakai
"We examine three household scenarios, formed using publicly available data, to explore whether households on low income have sufficient financial resources to cover basic costs of living. Insufficient resource can lead to experiences of food insecurity, disadvantage and exclusion."
Food Insecurity in 12 year olds
“Having regular healthy meals is important for children’s wellbeing and development, and early adolescence is a time of huge growth. The quality and quantity of food a young person eats also affects their mood and ability to concentrate, with children who are moderate or severely food insecure the most affected."
The working poor - two-income families and elderly turning to food banks and handouts to survive
"On the same day (July 31) the Government trumpeted its tax relief was kicking in, KiwiHarvest released the details on the new working poor - these are double-income families with children as well as grandparents who are becoming more dependent on food banks."
World Food Day Report
"77% of respondents said food insecurity was due to the cost of living exceeding income. That tells us that for a lot of people, there’s just not enough money for food."
Family 100 Project
The Auckland City Mission has listened to the stories of 100 families who are long-term food bank users in order to better understand the factors that trap some families in a repeating cycle of poverty.
A deeper understanding of the experiences of families living in urban poverty in Auckland
