Making Ireland Fairer

Appropriate nutrition

Combatting Food Poverty
Food Poverty is the inability to access a nutritionally adequate diet. Food poverty impacts on health, culture, and social participation and is often a cause of anti-social behaviour. In Ireland, according to Combat Poverty, 300,000 people are at risk of experiencing Food Poverty. Food Poverty affects rural dwellers in disproportionate numbers due to a variety of reasons including a relative absence of shops and public transportation. It also affects disproportionately, for a number of reasons which are not only related to financial means, the elderly, travellers, children, the disabled and the ill.

• I will campaign for a national nutrition policy for all sectors of society at risk of Food Poverty to be developed and mainstreamed.
• I will support the giving of fruit every day to school children all over Ireland.
• I will work on extending the provision of meals, which actually fulfil evidence-based nutritional goals, to every person Ireland who is at risk of Food Poverty, including school meals and meals-on-wheels.

Back to main policies page