The visible poor and food poverty

Abstract

The expression the ‘visible poor’ is often used to refer to homeless people living and sleeping rough in the United Kingdom. This article will argue that there are other signs of the visible poor that are related to food poverty, or food insecurity. These can be discerned in the sharp rise in the uptake at foodbanks and in the eligibility for free school meals. There was a rise in the visible poor in the pre-Covid-19 United Kingdom and the short term and predicted long term effects of the pandemic will produce a further rise of the visible poor. This article examines this food poverty from a Catholic theological perspective drawing from the gospels, José Comblin, Gustavo Gutiérrez and Catholic Social Teaching.

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http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/237229/