Beyond the Food Bank: London Food Poverty Profile 2019
Beyond the Food Bank 2019 is the fifth edition of London’s comprehensive food poverty profile. The report looks at what local authorities are doing to reduce food poverty across a range of measures.
Download the Response, Resilience and Recovery 2020 report which this year replaces Beyond the Food Bank and Good Food for London.
Contents
- Recommendations for action
- Which London boroughs are leading the way in tackling food poverty in their area?
- London food poverty in numbers
- Actions London councils are taking to combat food poverty:
- Develop and implement a food poverty action plan
- Increase the uptake of Healthy Start vouchers
- Support, protect and promote breastfeeding to boost the health of infants and mothers
- Provide high quality affordable childcare and maximise the value of children’s centres
- Improve the implementation and uptake of free school meals and support breakfast clubs
- Secure children’s access to food during the holidays
- Ensure all residents have physical access to good food
- Support and enhance meals on wheels provision
- Become a London Living Wage employer and promote the London Living Wage
- Set low minimum payments for residents qualifying for Council Tax Reduction
View the Beyond the Food Bank 2019 league table and maps
Recommendations for action
We recommend that councils continue or take on these actions to develop a local response to food poverty and the factors that drive it.
- Have a comprehensive plan to reduce food poverty which would include these subsequent recommendations.
- Have a designated Healthy Start coordinator and an integrated programme of activities to increase local uptake rate.
- Boost breastfeeding by working towards full Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation.
- Provide high quality affordable childcare and maximise the value of children’s centres.
- Improve the implementation and increase uptake of free school meals and support breakfast clubs.
- Ensure that all children have access to nutritious food during the school holidays.
- Lead on activities to improve physical access to good food by working with planners, retailers and caterers.
- Reinvigorate provision of meals on wheels, developing a ‘more than the meal’ approach.
- Become an accredited London Living Wage employer and contractor, champion the London Living Wage with local employers and become a Friendly Funder.
- Minimise the burden of Council Tax payments for residents on low income.
Published Wednesday 23 October 2019
Food Poverty: Millions of people in the UK struggle to get enough to eat. We’re working to change that through people-powered projects and campaigns that tackle the root causes of food poverty and ensure everyone has dignified access to healthy, affordable food.
