Beyond simply feeding people: perspectives amongst clients accessing emergency food relief in Ballarat.
By Benjamin David APD
The health status of Australians differs between regional and metropolitan areas. Factors such as geographic isolation, low population density, poorer socio-economic circumstances, limited infrastructure and access to services contribute to health inequities for people living in regional areas.
Food insecurity is the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods. It is a complex public health issue that considerably impacts the physical, mental and social health and wellbeing of Australians, especially those living in less-densely populated areas.
The experience of food insecurity may vary across a continuum of severity, ranging from worry about running out of food (marginal food security) to compromising food quantity, variety, nutritional quality and reducing meal size (low food security), to regularly skipping meals or going without food at all (very low food security).
Latest estimates highlight that 14.3% of residents in the regional Victorian city of Ballarat reported worrying about food insecurity with hunger, with 5.9% of the residents experiencing severe food insecurity with hunger.
Feeding programs such as food banks or pantries and meal programs are the main response to food insecurity, with 12% of Ballarat residents accessing emergency food relief. Given this, it is important to understand the experiences of residents accessing emergency food relief services to better understand and respond to food insecurity in Ballarat.
Dr Sue Kleve and team from Monash Nutrition, Ballarat Community Health, Curtin University and Flinders University explored the food security status, barriers to food security and experiences of food insecurity of clients accessing emergency food relief services in Ballarat.
The team surveyed 100 clients accessing meal programs and/or emergency food relief services from three food service organisations in Ballarat.
Results highlight:
- 92% of clients accessing emergency food relief services experienced food insecurity; of these, 63% were experiencing very low food security, meaning they have regularly skipped meals or experienced going without food for a whole day.
- Over half (54%) of households with children reported being sometimes unable to feed their children balanced meals and 50% indicated that they were not eating enough.
- 47% of clients relied on emergency food relief services for food between one and five years.
- 76% of clients indicated that they do not have the money in their budget to buy the food they need, with 34% reportedly spending AUD$21 to $50 per week on food for themselves and/or family and a further 34% reportedly spending AUD$51 to $100.
- 37% of clients reported a fortnightly income of between $450 to $649, with 97% receiving social security payments, such as the Disability Support Pension or unemployment benefit (the most common).
- Half of clients reported the main impacts of not having enough food affected their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
- Private rental is the most frequent form of housing tenure (41%) followed by public/community housing (37%).
- 73% of clients reported that they should be eating more fresh foods but the cost was prohibitive and, when asked to list the three foods they would buy if they had an extra AUD$20, clients indicated meat, vegetables and fruit.
- The majority of participants said that it was important for emergency food relief services to provide healthy food (93%), fruits and vegetables (92%), cooked meals (91%), grocery (supermarket) vouchers (89%) and food for special dietary requirements (69%).
Regardless of location, the key
determinants of food insecurity relate to poverty, low or inadequate income,
under or unemployment and housing costs.
Whilst providing emergency food relief is not a sustainable solution to
food insecurity, there is opportunity to improve service design and delivery.
People who receive emergency food relief want healthier, better quality and
more varied foods. Through nutrition-focused food banking and procurement
policies such as the New York Food Bank's “No Soda, No Candy” donation policy,
alternative models of food delivery should be explored to meet client
preferences. As the major response to food insecurity, key strategies to
mitigate food insecurity lie beyond simply feeding people.
You can learn more about this study here.
If you are interested to learn more about
household food insecurity in Australia, check out the Australian Household Food Insecurity Information Hub.
Benjamin David is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Communications Project Officer at in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food at Monash University. Benjamin had the opportunity to partake in this research project as part of NUT5002 Master of Dietetics Public Health Nutrition research program.
Publication information
Sue Kleve, Deborah Greenslade, Melissa Farrington, Sarah Funston, Benjamin S. David, Jessica Xi, Chloe Swiney, Emily Clarke, Christina M. Pollard, Sue Booth, "Perspectives of Food Insecurity and Service Delivery amongst Emergency Food Relief Clients in a Regional City in Victoria, Australia", Health & Social Care in the Community, vol. 2023, Article ID 8711041, 10 pages, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/8711041
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