Blog: We can build a country where no-one goes hungry

People believe in a Scotland where everyone can live in health and dignity, and where no one experiences hunger. 

But too many in our communities are skipping meals, cutting back on fresh food and choosing between heating their homes and feeding their families.  

That isn’t inevitable. It’s the result of the political and economic choices that make poverty possible. 

The Right to Food

In our submission to the Right to Food UK Commission, our message was clear: the current scale of hunger in Scotland is being driven by incomes that don’t meet people’s needs.  

Wages have failed to keep pace with the cost of living. Social security has been weakened by years of austerity and deliberately cruel policy decisions. Services and local infrastructure lack the investment they so badly need. The result is that too many people are denied the income and access necessary  to realise their right to food. 

Emergency food parcels - and cash-first support to buy food - have become vital lifelines for people across the country. Without the generosity of communities, and their continued commitment to helping at foodbanks and pantries, many more households would be left with empty fridges and cupboards.  

But emergency support can’t fix an unjust, broken system. If politicians are serious about the right to food, they must be serious about income, security, and dignity. 

The Minimum Income Guarantee is a solution. It’s a simple, powerful idea: an income floor below which nobody is allowed to fall. It will ensure that everyone has the resources needed to meet their basic needs, participate in society and build a life free from constant financial stress. 

A Minimum Income Guarantee isn’t just about social security. For most people, the route to getting above their income floor will be fair work: secure, flexible jobs with predictable hours and wages that reflect the real cost of living. That means more employers committing to the real Living Wage, Living Hours and Living Pensions, – and our governments using public spending, business support and employment policy to make fair work the norm. 

But work alone will never provide security for everyone. That means a strong social security system is essential. Life can be unpredictable; redundancy, bereavement, illness and caring responsibilities can happen to anyone, at any time, creating time where support is needed. A compassionate system that is rooted in adequacy is therefore an investment in people. It gives us all a secure foundation to build a positive future, something which society’s wellbeing relies on.  

No excuses

People are rightly angry and disillusioned by our unjust economy. That anger will continue to grow until our politicians rebuild trust by making decisions for the good of the country as a whole. 

There are no excuses. The UK Government can act now to make sure that Universal Credit at least covers the daily essentials of life. They can abandon the unjust five-week wait for a first payment, scrap the benefit cap that arbitrarily robs people of their entitlements and remove discriminatory age bands that leave young adults with even less. 

Scotland has shown that a different approach is possible through Social Security Scotland. W will be telling MSPs that values and principles must be matched by concrete investment. That means increasing the Scottish Child Payment, strengthening support for carers, improving the Scottish Welfare Fund, and ensuring everyone can access free, independent welfare rights advice. 

The right to food must apply to everyone. People seeking asylum, refugees and those with No Recourse to Public Funds are too often pushed into severe hardship by inhuman rules that deny them adequate support. A rights-based approach can’t leave anyone outside its protection. 

Alongside action on incomes, our MSPs can back universal free breakfast and lunch for every pupil in Scotland, so that no child is left to learn on an empty belly.  

The Scottish Government can ensure fair, secure funding for community organisations, so trusted local groups – many of them Poverty Alliance members - can continue building connection, advice and support for people struggling on low incomes. 

Government action to make essential food more affordable, including price caps, has the potential to be an important tool in reducing hunger. But these interventions must be shaped with communities, retailers, producers and anti-poverty organisations, and costs cannot simply be pushed down the supply chain. This must also include tackling the geography of hunger, from Castlemilk’s long campaign for a supermarket to rural and island communities facing higher prices, limited choice and costly transport. 

Hunger isn’t inevitable. It’s created by systems that fail to guarantee people adequate incomes, secure work, decent services and access to nutritious food at a price they can afford. 

Political choices have created our hunger crisis. Political choices can end it.