Food charities warns of a hunger spiral

Food charities are warning that millions of people in the UK will need food aid in the coming days as the coronavirus outbreak threatens to quickly spiral into a crisis of hunger.

Experts argue that the pandemic has exposed the extraordinary fragility of the food system in just a few weeks, and, unless the government acts immediately to reinvent the way we feed ourselves, the system is unlikely to withstand the growing pressures it is likely to face in the coming weeks and months.

Food Foundation figures show that some 17 million people fall into the higher risk category for coronavirus because they are elderly, have underlying health conditions, or are pregnant. At least 860,000 people in this category were already struggling to afford enough food before the crisis. And at least one million of them report always or often being lonely, and therefore may struggle to find people to deliver food to them.

Furthermore, between four million and seven million people in lower risk categories are also affected by severe food insecurity or loneliness, so having to self-isolate could tip them into crisis.

While the government saw working well with supermarkets ad big retailers, they are being accused of failing to grasp the structural weaknesses in the food system and the scale of food poverty.