Food insecurity is increasing in the UK.

During 2024, food poverty in the United Kingdom remained an area of concern for the new government. In July 2024, 14 per cent of households experienced food insecurity, with households with children more at risk than households without. Healthy diets were unaffordable for many due to the cost-of-living crisis and the expense of – and poor access to – healthy foods. The poorest fifth of the UK population would need to spend an estimated 70 per cent of their income to afford a healthy diet.

Action Against Hunger’s UK programme continued to support community food pantries in Lewisham in southeast London, and in Smethwick in the West Midlands. Community food pantries are grassroots projects where food insecure households can access a variety of foods every week for a small fee. Thanks to our corporate partners, we provided sub-grants to six community food pantries to help them operate and stock their pantries with a range of healthy foods. The community pantries supported over 380 households every week during the funding period.

2024’s programme centred around our “Healthy Pantry” strategy. This aimed to support partners to operate their community pantries as healthy food environments, to improve the accessibility and uptake of healthy diets for shoppers. Action Against Hunger delivered Healthy Eating training sessions to community pantry staff and volunteers, with the aim of equipping them with information to support their shoppers to consume healthier diets.

Finally, Action Against Hunger provided strategic and financial support to a local partner to launch a Food and Wellbeing Centre in a deprived area of south London. This included the renovation of a derelict building and will include, during 2025, the launch of a free food skills training course for marginalised and disadvantaged community members.