Rising food bank use in the UK: Sign of a new public health emergency?
Rising food bank use in the UK: Sign of a new public health emergency?
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DOI：
10.1111/nbu.12306
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发表时间：
2018-03-01
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Loopstra, R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Loopstra, R.
英国最近扩大了通过食品银行提供的食品援助。通过向经济困难的人们提供免费袋装食品，食品银行旨在防止个人和家庭缺乏食物。越来越多的研究试图了解这种类型的供应，从它对英国社会保障的影响到它对粮食不安全问题的影响。本文回顾了最近关于从食品银行获得帮助的人们的特征的研究，强调它们为英国经济上最脆弱的群体提供服务：残疾人、领取失业救济金的人和单亲父母。在这一人群中观察到的粮食不安全的严重性和长期性是一个公共卫生问题，有证据表明心理健康状况不佳的比例很高。食品银行在满足人们需求方面的表现在很大程度上没有受到重视，但专注于建设更好的食品银行也可能有助于进一步巩固自愿和慈善食品援助，作为英国社会安全网的一部分。鉴于有证据表明养老金和收入转移等政策干预措施可以减少粮食不安全，本文讨论了恢复强大的社会安全网对于减少对粮食银行的需求和粮食不安全的重要性。
The provision of food aid through food banks has recently expanded in the UK. By providing free bags of food to people experiencing financial shortfalls, food banks aim to prevent individuals and families from going without food. A growing body of research has sought to understand this type of provisioning, from what it indicates about social security in the UK to what it indicates about the problem of food insecurity. Here, recent research on the characteristics of people receiving help from food banks is reviewed, highlighting that they serve the most financially vulnerable groups in the UK: people with disabilities, people receiving out-of-work benefits and lone parents. The severity and chronicity of food insecurity observed in this population is a public health concern, as is evidence of high rates of poor mental health. Food banks have largely gone unevaluated for how well they do at meeting the needs of people using them, but focusing on building better food banks may also serve to further entrench voluntary and charitable food assistance as part of the social safety net in the UK. Given evidence that policy interventions such as pensions and income transfers reduce food insecurity, the importance of restoring strong social safety nets for reducing the need for food banks and food insecurity is discussed.