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What is food insecurity? | Ensuring nutritious and affordable food for all | Birmingham City Council
Ensuring nutritious and affordable food for all

What is food insecurity?

Food insecurity is defined by the United Nations as “limited access to food…due to a lack of money or other resources” (FAO UN, 2017). ‘Low food security’ means that the household reduces the quality, variety, and desirability of their diets. ‘Very low food security’ means that household members sometimes disrupt eating patterns or reduce food intake because they lack money or other resources for food.

Food insecurity disproportionally affects the most vulnerable groups of people.  The rising cost of living has affected the affordability of goods and services bought by households, leading to more people having to make difficult choices between buying healthy food or paying bills. In some cases, they are not able to switch to cheaper food as they are already buying the lowest cost food items, so end up having to eat less. As a result, there has been record high numbers of food parcels distributed between 2022-2024 (HOCL, 2024).  

Food insecurity is associated with poor diets and can have an adverse effect on physical and mental health outcomes.

Key facts:

  • In Jan 2025, 7.3 million adults experienced food insecurity in the UK (Food Foundation, 2025).
  • In Jan 2025, 17.9% of households with children experienced food insecurity in the UK (Food Foundation, 2025).
  • In Jan 2025, 2.4 million adults in the UK reported not eating for a whole day because they couldn't afford or get access to food (Food Foundation, 2025).
  • In 2023/24, 2.8 million people had used a foodbank in the previous 12 months (DWP, 2025).
  • In Spring 2025, BCC collaborated with the Food Justice Network to do the City-Wide Food Aid Count, where we asked all foodbanks and other food projects in the city to count the number of people accessing their food support. This found that at least 22,367 visits were made to a food aid project in Birmingham in a week, feeding at least 30,240 people (BCC, 2025). There was an average of 163 visits per group/organisation, an increase on the 2023 count of 112 visits per group per organisation. You can download the full City-Wide Food Aid Count.

If you would like to find out more about our projects email: FoodSystemPH@Birmingham.gov.uk.

Page last updated: 13 October 2025

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