Hidden hunger
New work by Sustain farming (formerly the National Food Alliance and the SAFE Alliance) has revealed further evidence to to highlight the problem of food poverty among children in the UK, . This includinges children going without food for long periods, arriving at coming into school hungry and making very unhealthy food choices, and some visible signs of malnutrition at school. Jacqui Webster and Vicky Johnson describe the project.

The new findings are the result of The findings are the result of Sustain's: The alliance for better food and farming's (formerly the National Food Alliance and the SAFE Alliance) community mapping project. This forms part of its food poverty project programme to involve people on low incomes in the development of appropriate policies to tackle food poverty. The project was run in partnership with Oxfam's UK Poverty Programme and Development Focus. Sustain worked with local partners in Brighton, Coventry and Leicester to , which pilot participatory appraisal techniques that to enabled local people, including children, to analyse their local food economies and develop innovative solutions to the problems they faced trying to obtaining a healthy diet.

Participatory appraisal has been widely used in the South, but is increasingly recognised in the UK. It usually involves visual aids, such as maps, flow diagrams, time lines, matrices, Venn diagrams and spider charts. Such methods serve to break down the barriers, such as language, literacy or confidence, that often prevent different groups – particularly children – from participating on an equal footing in discussions.

Clear evidence of food poverty was apparent in the children's diets. In one area, just the physical appearance of many children revealed poor diets (assessed by nutritionists working on the project), including both extremely overweight and extremely thin children – some with 'pot-bellies'. Some of the children spoken to said they had had nothing to eat all day. A daily activity chart on children's meal regularity showed that some children did not eat anything for long periods of time. Others ate regularly, but the foods tended to be high in fat and sugar (chips, crisps, biscuits, sweets and chocolate) and the amounts very small. Only two children mentioned eating vegetables and no child mentioned eating fruit.

In all three areas, not being able to waste food was a major issue for many mothers. They had to buy what they knew their children would eat and could not afford to experiment with meals to make them healthier. The extra cost of feeding children in the school holidays, when they do not receive a free meal once a day, was also highlighted. One woman described how her children wanted to eat all the time when they had nothing to do. It was suggested that there should be an increase in benefits during the school holidays to account for this.

As with previous studies of food poverty, people struggled to find ways of ensuring that their children were well fed. But the extent to which children influenced the diets of whole families was very surprising. Some parents reported that the children were actually dictating what the whole family ate. The poor quality of school meals and advertising were highlighted as the main reasons for this. Children were making very unhealthy food choices at school and expected to have the same food at home. These findings are of great significance to national and local government policy on poverty and health inequalities, indicating that if we improve children's diets, we could improve the health of whole families.

Since the project, community action plans have been developed in all three areas. In Leicester, in order to improve the diets of school children, teachers and others are working with parents and children on setting up breakfast and after-school clubs. In Brighton, plans are underway to set up structures, such as a youth committee, to consult young people. Suggestions have already been made for a young people's café, a play facility has been established, and links have been made with the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership to increase play schemes and after-school clubs. One mother has been talking to community development workers about setting up a mothers and toddlers group, and a cooking club for parents and children is being established by local residents.

In Coventry, the project has made an important start in understanding how to target poorer people, specifically children. Focus groups are planned to try and understand some of the issues in more detail. A partnership has already been established between voluntary organisations, head teachers and the council to work on food in schools. There are plans to set up breakfast clubs in six primary schools, improve school meals, start after-school clubs selling healthy snacks and provide free fruit in schools.

More time is needed to assess the long-term impact of using participatory appraisal to help local communities understand their local food economies and to develop and implement solutions to address food poverty. Sustain has obtained funding from the Department of Health to support community mapping projects in other areas and to continue to evaluate the impacts in the initial pilot areas.

The report of the community mapping project will be launched at an event in London on 4 July. For more information contact Jacqui Webster at Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming on 020 7837 1228 or email  jacqui@sustainweb.org

Jacqui Webster is the food poverty project officer at Sustain. Vicky Johnson is a trainer at Development Focus.

Poverty 106, Summer 2000