Experts estimate one in four Australian families experience food insecurity
A growing number of Australians see a healthy diet as a luxury they cannot afford.
Described by the United Nations as having limited or uncertain access to a nutritious diet, food insecurity is on the rise in Australia according to researchers.
Professor Danielle Gallegos, a food security expert at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), said researchers estimate the issue affects one in four Australian families
And for families with dependent children, the numbers are even worse.
A 2022 study by Foodbank found half of those surveyed suffered some form of food insecurity, while a separate QUT study found one in 10 pregnant women were going hungry due to a lack of food.
Measuring the extent of the problem is difficult, because unlike the US, UK and Canada, Australia does not measure food security at a population level regularly or consistently.
In a statement, the federal Health Department did not say whether it planned to increase monitoring of household food security.
But it said the National Preventive Health Strategy includes a policy achievement to develop a national policy document to address food security in priority populations, by 2030.
For Sara Walker, that is too slow.
“People in this country are starving. Starving to death probably,” she said.
She has since started her own charity that hands out donated food to families in her area.
But she said community organisations cannot solve the problem on their own.
“We shouldn’t be having third world conditions in a country that is as rich as Australia,” she said.
(ABC)
