www.wairaka.net/ubinz/IR/items/1999A23ListenerDaishPoverty.html

It is painful to know that at least 150,000 New Zealanders won't have enough good food to eat today. It's not that they are starving to death. They don t even look hungry. But day after day, week after week, month after month, about four percent of our population do not bring home enough good nutritious food. In some parts of the country, the numbers are much higher, with one in every three households not making the grade.

"Hidden Hunger" is a report prepared by the New Zealand Network Against Food Poverty. The report brings together the results of a large number of studies carried out over the past few years and includes statistics from "New Zealand Food: New Zealand People. Key results of the 1997 National Nutrition Survey", which was released by the Ministry of Health in August. Every statistic tells a similar story of significant numbers of people regularly going short of good food.

Who are these hungry people? There is overwhelming evidence that not enough food is associated with not enough income. Many hungry people are beneficiaries and their families. Others are in low-income jobs. When families are short of food, it is often the children who are fed first, then the men and finally the women. Even so, many children are hungry, too. In a 1995 national study, teachers estimated that 22,000 children at school were regularly hungry and that 60,000 were missing breakfast.

Despite statistics such as these, many people still think that hungry families have only themselves to blame. Some think the problem is that poor people don't manage their money wisely. Research shows that the opposite is true. Every year Otago University works out the cost of a healthy diet. There are three rates: basic, moderate and liberal. In 1999, a woman living in Wellington needs $44 a week for a basic diet, $57 for a moderate diet and $68 for a liberal diet. Men need to spend somewhat more and teenagers, especially boys, considerably more - $59 basic, $76 moderate and $92 liberal. Auckland is more expensive than Wellington and other areas are a little cheaper.

I don't usually keep a careful tab of what I spend on food each week, but I did for a few weeks after reading these figures. Our household of one man and one woman and occasional visitors regularly ate up even more money than the "liberal" figure of $140 a week. I buy the very best fresh produce that I can find, but I always cook it from scratch and we waste almost nothing. There are even a few vegetables from the garden and the odd free sample from manufacturers. What a shock to read in a 1996 survey that many low-income families of two adults had less than $45 available to spend on food each week. That's nearly a hundred dollars less than I spend. Half the people interviewed in that study said they had given up eating food that most other New Zealanders eat regularly.
 

HIGH RENTS

People on low incomes are hard pressed to meet other everyday costs as well as food. Rent often takes up the largest share of a small income. In 1996, the majority of people going to foodbanks were spending more than half their total income on rent. On top of that, there are power and phone bills, children's shoes and prescriptions. Food gets pushed ever further down the list of priorities. Every study of budgeting shows that the poor manage their money skilfully. The problem is that there is not enough money to go around.
 

COOKING LESSONS

Some think that the poor need cooking lessons and vegetable gardens. "Why don't they buy cheap vegetables and make big pots of minestrone?" I was asked recently. Seems like a good idea until you think more closely about what making minestrone involves. You need stove and a large pot. You need a chopping board and knife. You have to buy dried beans and macaroni, onions, garlic, carrots, a can of tomatoes, seasonings, beef bones or stock powder. You need time for the soup to cook, and transport to carry the heavy raw materials home from the supermarket. People on low incomes seldom have the lump sum of money needed to get home cooking under way and maintain a stock of basic ingredients. It is often cheaper to buy takeaways or partly prepared foods.

Gardening, even more than cooking, depends on a complex set of conditions. As well as the money to buy equipment and materials, gardeners need suitable land, security, local knowledge about growing conditions and certainty that they will still be around when the crop comes in. For most low-income households today, none of these conditions apply.
 

ASKING FOR HELP

Others say that the poor only need to ask for help. Recently, I heard about a high school student who worked out an original recipe to enter in a competition organised by our largest chicken producer. The closing date for entries came and went and her teacher noticed that she hadn't actually entered. The teacher wondered what had happened and eventually found out from the student's mother that the family couldn't afford to buy the chicken needed to try out her daughter's recipe. The teacher asked why the family didn't ask for help from the school. The mother said it was her shame at being poor that stopped her. Can you blame her for not wanting to beg for a chicken?

It is the same with foodbanks. Most people are very reluctant to use foodbanks and do so only when there is a crisis, or when bills and debts have accumulated to such an extent that there is no money at all left. Despite this, the use of food hanks is continuing to grow. In the first three months of 1999, the Christchurch Methodist Mission had a 28.5 percent increase in clients on the year before. Foodbank statistics from a range of regions indicate that at least 10 percent of families now seek help from a foodbank at least once during the year. Not all foodbank recipients are beneficiaries. Many are working fulltime in low-paid jobs.

The "Hidden Hunger" report comes to the conclusion that there is one simple reason why people on low incomes are going without the food they need. They do not have enough money to buy it.
 

WHY ARE POOR PEOPLE FAT?
New Zealanders in general are getting fatter, but people on low incomes run a higher than average risk of being overweight. This is because they tend to buy food that is "energy dense" - that is, food that provides the most energy per gram of weight. In terms of energy for money, these foods are often a good buy. For the same price, there's more energy available from a chocolate bar than a bunch of carrots. However, these energy dense" foods are usually high in fat and fatty foods don't give a satisfying sense of
fullness. Soon you feel hungry again. The consequent overeating can make people obese and at the same time short of essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. In all developed countries, it is people in low-income families who are most likely to be overweight.

READ THE REPORT
Copies of Hidden Hunger - Food and low income in New Zealand are available tree from the NZ Network Against Food Poverty. Write to
  Kevin Hackwell
  Downtown Community Ministry
  PO Box 6133
  Wellington
or fax (04)384- 7888.
 

MORE THAN SURVIVAL
Getting enough to eat means more than just getting enough food to survive. It means getting the balanced range of foods that humans need for a healthy diet. People who do not have enough good food to eat get sick, suffer personal stress and become isolated from the community.