West Lothian food security and employability charity, The Larder, has responded to the shocking statistics released by The Food Foundation that one in seven people in the UK are food insecure.
The Larder, who have recently been shortlisted for ‘Charity of the Year’ in the Scottish Charity Awards for their work in West Lothian, called the statistics a ‘damning indictment of our society’.
The Food Foundation found that more than two million adults in the UK can’t afford to eat everyday, with one in seven adults estimated to be food-insecure, up 57% from January due to the rising cost of living in Britain.
CEO of The Larder, Angela Moohan said: “These figures are a damning indictment of our society.
“People skipping meals, our poorest people going hungry rather than being fed and millions of children going to bed with an empty stomach is shameful and evidence that something in our society is broken.
“The figures confirm what we already know.
“In West Lothian we provide meals to people going hungry, but the numbers of people needing food are growing and we at The Larder are only scratching the surface in terms of how many people we are helping compared to the numbers who need help with feeding themselves and their families.”
It is predicted that food insecurity figures are likely to get worse over the next few months as inflation continues to rise alongside the national insurance rise and the lifting of the energy price cap.
Angela Moohan concludes: “This is now a national emergency and it’s one with rising energy costs that is only going to get worse.
“We urgently need Government intervention in Scotland.
“The Scottish Government could and should convene a cost of living/food insecurity summit with a view to organising and resourcing coordinated action with councils, the third sector and themselves, to ensure not one person in Scotland feels insecure about where their next meal is coming from.”
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