Did you know that more than half a million Australian households struggle to meet their food needs?
Households with children have been reported to be 32 per cent food insecure over the past year compared to the national average of 21 per cent. Meanwhile, single parent households are 37 per cent severely food insecure.
The rising cost of living is the most common explanation for why people are failing to meet their household food requirements (64 per cent of food insecure households).
The cost of food and groceries is the top cause (49 per cent), followed closely by energy (42 per cent) and housing (33 per cent) costs.
Over half of food insecure households (54 per cent) had someone in paid work.
Nearly a third of households with mortgages (30 per cent) have experienced food insecurity in the last year.
The situation is even worse in regional areas (36 per cent compared to 27 per cent in metro areas).
On a typical day, 306,000 households are receiving assistance from food relief organisations.
These are the results of Foodbank Hunger Report 2022.
This pressure could be further exacerbated by the current state of Australia’s cold chain network.
Foodbank Australia CEO, Brianna Casey, has witnessed the rise in demand for food relief services over the past year, but even she was shocked by the troubling picture of today’s Australia exposed in the report.
“We know how important it is for people to have access to nutritious food, yet the rising costs of energy, fuel, groceries, rent and mortgages have put this fundamental need beyond the reach of more and more people with no respite in sight,” said Casey.
“These results should make everyone stop in their tracks. The numbers being reported are massive and hard to process, but they represent the harsh reality of living week to week when the cost-of-living crisis collides with an income crisis and the household budget now lists food as a discretionary spend.”
The report signals that the problem is only set to get worse with half of all households experiencing difficulty saying that being unable to afford food is happening more often.
The report presents key findings from a survey which was conducted between 11 and 28 July 2022, through an online questionnaire of 4,024 people in Australia aged 18 years or older. The sample was nationally representative by age, gender and location (capital city / rest of state) in each major state, with stratified quotas to ensure all major states have a robust minimum sample size of n=600 or above. The data was weighted to nationally representative proportion of age, gender, state and location (capital city/ rest of state).
‘Food insecurity’ covers a range of experiences from being uncertain about getting enough food and compromising on nutrition right through to disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.
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