Food poverty, the crisis in Italy. Action Aid

Ente Pro Loco Italiane convenes the States General of Social Affairs

13 October 2023

ACCESS Égalité, the certification of the accessibility of structures and services

27 October 2023

Published by Sabrina Bergamini and Dario Dongo on 21 October 2023

1) Poverty in Italy, 2023. The spiral and the stigma

The spiral of poverty - and thus food poverty - has assumed epidemic dimensions, in Italy, starting from the 'Covid era'.

'The pandemic was starving the country, also affecting sections of the population who had never had the need to resort to forms of institutional help, the so-called new poor (poor workers, precarious young people, large and single-parent families). The trajectory that led these individuals into the spiral of poverty dates back at least ten years before the pandemic, following the economic and financial crisis and the austerity policies adopted by European countries'.

Statistical data available today, nevertheless, refer to poverty 'using broken lenses which, despite the necessary exercise of recomposing their pieces, inevitably leave gaps to be filled'.

Poverty and food poverty that is, they are observed only in their economic dimension, neglecting their social implications - 'stigma, renunciation, lack of freedom of choice and contraction of opportunities for sociality and conviviality' – which ActionAid's investigation focuses on instead. We need to piece together fragmented statistics to understand the true extent of these phenomena.

2) Material and social food deprivation

The 'deprivation food material' is defined by Eurostat as 'the impossibility, for economic reasons, of having a complete meal - with chicken, meat, fish or vegetarian equivalent - at least once every two days'. In 2021, even before the abysmal economic crisis triggered by European participation in the conflict in Ukraine, 7,9% of the population resident in Italy, equal to 4,6 million people, found themselves in this condition.

Social food deprivation it is instead considered in terms of the impossibility of meeting with friends or relatives to eat or drink something, in conviviality, at least once a month. However, again in 2021, this condition concerned 6,5% of the population resident in Italy in the age groups over 15 years. Approximately 3,3 million people.

The index of 'material or social food deprivation' developed by ActionAid therefore estimates that in 2021 almost 8 million people resident in Italy did not have 'access to a full meal at least once a day or were unable to gather with friends or family to eat or have a drink at least once a month. It is important to underline that of these people only 4 out of 10 were in conditions of relative poverty'.

3) Food poverty, economic poverty and family perception

'6 out of 10 people among those who find themselves in conditions of material or social food deprivation in Italy are not considered at risk of poverty, since they have incomes higher than 60% of the national median. Using another poverty indicator, based on the perception of families regarding the difficulty of making it to the end of the month with the available resources, we discover that 7 out of 10 people among those in a condition of food deprivation are also among those who declare they make it to the end month with difficulty or great difficulty'.

These data show that not only statistics but also policies aimed at mitigating poverty, where based on standardized income thresholds alone, are not able to intercept the complexity and extent of food poverty. With the risk of excluding a large part of the population who actually live in conditions of material deprivation but are not considered poor. Without forgetting that over 1/5 of the European population was already in a state of poverty at the dawn of the Euro-Russian crisis. (2)

'We need to change the vision that we have of the phenomenon to adopt a truly multidimensional approach that revolves around the right to food and not to aid, which involves the community and not just individuals, also adopting more effective food poverty detection systems at a territorial level'.

4) Most afflicted sections of the population

Unemployed, foreigners and disabled people ('unable to work', in the discriminatory jargon that applies in Italy) are in first place in material or social food deprivation, which involves 28,3%, 23,1% and 22,3% respectively.

Food poverty afflicting

22,6% of those who live in a rented house,
20,7% of the population in the South,
17,4% of those with an education equal to or less than a middle school diploma,
13,3% of those who live in metropolitan areas,
12,3% of young people aged 19-35,
12,7% of adults in the 50-64 age group.

In 2021, in Italy, he suffered a condition of malnutrition, understood as the inability to take a complete meal with the necessary proteins at least once a day,

10,4% of minors with non-European citizenship,
5,3% of those in the North-West,
5,3% of those whose families pay rent,
3,3% among children under 5 years old.

And the situation can only get worse, with double-digit food inflation in the last two years.
The social stigma that revolves around poverty, however, can compromise the responses of parents, who could minimize or hide the difficulties encountered in guaranteeing adequate living conditions and meals for their children. More in-depth studies should therefore be carried out on these data and on the causes of child food poverty, such as those previously carried out by the Gaslini Foundation of Genoa. (2)

3) Families cutting food spending

ActionAid it also analyzed Istat surveys on household spending. Already in 2021, 9% of families residing in Italy had reduced the purchase of food, for a total of 2,3 million families and over 5,4 million people. And the situation has worsened dramatically in the years since, it's worth noting.

This phenomenon it is more pronounced among families in absolute poverty (26,2%), those who would not be able to cope with a sudden expense of around 800 euros (24,8%), those made up of foreign citizens (23,0% ), people living alone aged 35-64 (11,8%), single-parent families (13,9%) and those made up of couples with three or more children (13,5%).

#it will all be fine?

Sabrina Bergamini and Dario Dongo

Cover by Alberto Sànchez Arguello https://tinyurl.com/4a8ay43j