The Low Down on Food Poverty
Food poverty is broadly defined as a household unable to obtain an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways.
With costs of products and services rising due to increasing inflation and the impact of the energy crisis, many families are fast facing the prospect of struggling to find the money for essentials such as food.
Research has shown 95% of adults have seen the price of their food shopping increase.
So what are the options?
Food Banks
Food banks supply emergency food to those most vulnerable. The UK's Trussell Trust and Independent Food Aid Network mostly run these. They can provide food vouchers or food parcels, depending on your circumstances.
You can find your nearest foodbank here:
Find a Food Bank - The Trussell Trust
Independent Food Aid Network UK
Free School Meals
It's a statutory entitlement for eligible pupils in England to receive free school meals. They will also qualify for the Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAF) if eligible.
To check your child's eligibility or to apply:
Apply for free school meals - GOV.UK
Food Saving Apps
Several food-saving apps can help you obtain lower-priced meals from well-known food chains. Read more to understand how it works and the pros and cons. Too Good To Go is just one app that provides heavily discounted meals and magic bags at varying times of the day. There are no criteria to use this service, but it is a very popular app, and sometimes things sell out quickly.
Read our review on Too Good To Go here.
Free Food
Using a free food app such as Olio, you can sign up to get notified of free food given away in your community. You can also become a food volunteer and pick up food directly from places such as your local Tesco, Holland and Barrett, and One-stop and advertise it yourself. All volunteers are eligible to keep 10% of all food they collect, so it's a win-win for feeding yourself and helping your community for free.
OLIO – The #1 Free Sharing App
Read our review on Olio here.
Loyalty Cards
Loyalty cards help you to build up points based on the services and products purchased and let you use those points to trade in for other rewards.
Here are some of the most popular available: