Good Food Strategy

Household food security

We will reduce food insecurity through:

Working with partners to support people to maximise their income
Calling for improvements to the benefits system and fair pay
Enabling communities to come together and learn new skills
Increase access to fresh, local produce

Although food poverty has been growing in the UK for over a decade, the global pandemic and subsequent cost of living crisis has increased the scale, creating additional financial pressures on households where food often becomes the most squeezed part of the budget. Data from the Food Foundation in June 2023 revealed that 17% of people in the UK are experiencing food poverty – amounting to over nine million adults. Local statistics reveal the number of people on Universal Credit in Arun and Chichester rose every month between May 2022 – July 2023.

The districts of Arun and Chichester have pockets of deprivation alongside systemic challenges including rural and coastal poverty. The Arun wards of Courtwick and Toddington in Littlehampton and Bersted Green in Bognor Regis are within the top 10% most deprived areas in the UK. Chichester District faces high housing costs, seasonal employment and poor transport links, limited service and shop provision outside of the urban area of the city of Chichester, creating difficulty in accessing food, services and advice for many.

A large focus of our work to date has been to explore and support local responses to food poverty. Focus has needed to be split between the short-term emergency work, which has included distributing funds to frontline food providers, and working towards longer-term solutions such as embedding advice services into community settings.

Improving the benefits system, fair wages and changes to the tax system could enable low and middle-income households to be more resilient, promote health and prevent crisis.