Council to launch inquiry into food poverty among Glaswegians

 

Glasgow City Council has announced it will launch an inquiry into food poverty in Glasgow, expected to begin on 13 November. This is in response to a report previously published in June 2016 by the Independent Working Group on Food Poverty, a temporary working group set up by the Scottish Government.

This report concluded that food insecurity is widespread in Scotland in comparison to other developed nations and that both additional intervention and investment are required in order to address the issue.

The inquiry will focus on the causes and prevalence of food insecurity in Glasgow. It will also make recommendations for policy solutions to address the problem.

Following the announcement of the inquiry Elaine Ballantyne, Chair of the General Purposes Policy Development Committee at Glasgow City Council, stated: “Food poverty and food insecurity is something that we must tackle in Glasgow, and the council has looked at a variety of ways in which we can help some of our most vulnerable citizens. Working in partnership with stakeholders and third sector organisations, we all have a role to make sure we try to eradicate any form of food poverty and the inquiry is a way in which we can continue to put more measures in place across the city. Together we need to understand what’s happening locally and find out the scale of our problem in our city and respond accordingly and that is what the food inquiry has been set up to tackle.”

In addition to this, eight per cent of respondents in last year’s National Health Survey reported experiencing instances of food insecurity in 2017. The issue appears to affect younger members of the population disproportionately. Six per cent of respondents to the survey aged between 16-44 reported having experienced running out of food completely over the course of the year compared to only half a per cent of respondents aged 65 or older.