Barnardo's believes that the scandal of child poverty in this country will only be tackled when action is taken to improve both the income and the access to services that the poorest families have. We know that money matters to the poorest families - especially when rising living costs, stagnating wages, a weak labour market and spending cuts are placing more pressure on them than ever before. Many families in poverty in the UK live on just £12 per person per day after housing costs. That £12 has to stretch to cover everything: food, electricity, water, gas, bus fares.
We need to acknowledge that food security is not just a third world problem. Food prices rose by 4.6% between March 2011 and March 2012. However, as most of us are able to afford to eat well, this fuels a perception that food security is not a problem in the UK. The key issue actually lies in how food security is interconnected with other serious issues.
The world's poorest families are cutting back on food and sending children out to work in order to survive, according to a survey by Save the Children...
We need food security at home and abroad, and greater transparency in how food commodities are traded globally, as Oxfam and others are calling for. People power helped fuel a rethink on the Common Fisheries Policy through the work of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Channel 4's Fish Fight campaign; now we need to do the same on food.