Why the cost of food is still a BIG worry

OK, we’ve definitely all been there: the only thing barer than your cupboards is your account balance. And trying to clobber together a decent feed from vegetable stock, kidney beans and two sad-looking onions is never enjoyable – even for the most inventive of amateur chefs.

Thankfully, for most that’s an occasional – hungry – storm to weather; but for others on low-incomes or for those reliant of social welfare payments, getting to the end of the week and doing without regular meals can be an all-too familiar occurrence.

“I remember 20 years ago not eating so my daughter would eat. I remember nights when there was literally no money,” JK Rowling, the author of the global-phenomenon Harry Potter books, has revealed. “There’d been nights when I had one Rich Tea biscuit and that was dinner.”

The 49-year-old author, now worth €900m, added in the same interview in 2013: “If you are very, very poor and pregnant there is nothing in the world more vulnerable-making and anxiety-inducing: you are prepared to starve yourself. To think of money running out with your child not being able to eat is terrifying.”

And now one study has confirmed that 22 per cent of adults worry about the amount of money they have to spend on food. Worse still, a third of families with younger children worry about the same issue.

Compiled by Kellogg’s, the Is The Food Divide Getting Bigger? report highlights that despite signs of an economic recovery, those on a lower income are still struggling.

“Many people have suffered income losses and quite simply do not have as much money to spend on food or anything else for that matter,” highlighted economist Jim Power, also a contributor to the study.

“Those on fixed and low incomes have been most badly affected.” 

“Acknowledging and addressing the food divide now could create a buffer against the legacy of food poverty in our communities,” Kellogg’s also warned.

In 2015, Kellogg’s will be donating 2million servings of cereal to children and families in Ireland via partnerships with Barnardos and Crosscare. The company furthermore supports more than 120 breakfast clubs across the country.