It is finished

Oct 21, 2012 15:35

Last Tuesday was World Food Day, and the third day of Anti-Poverty Week in Australia. It was also the day that Anglicare Australia launched their annual State of the Family report, which this year was focused on the food insecurity research that our team has been working on for over a year. It was finally published! So exciting!



The report authors (minus Sally), with Senator Rachael Siewert (third from left), who launched the report.

The study was centered on a household food insecurity among low income households, who were sampled from clients accessing Anglicare services all around the country. We used a tool developed by the United States Department of Agriculture. The whole experience was incredibly eye-opening, it was very depressing at times and needed lots of hard work to publish it by the World Food Day deadline! I'm so glad I had the opportunity to be involved in this.

You can read the report if you like: it is available here. Volume 1 is mainly reflective essays from different Anglicare agencies; Volume 2 is our research report so download that one! If you are not up for reading the whole thing (it's very long!) then chapters six through eight are the most interesting. They have the most direct quotes and stories from the clients who participated.

I'm hoping that this research raises awareness bout what poverty is like in Australia, but even more, I'm hoping that Christians especially sit up and pay attention. It would be wonderful if churches started responding as quickly as possible by considering how they can be welcoming places for people who struggle with household food insecurity. That would be much better than waiting for the government to do something.

"It affects everything. The school wants to know why the kids are hungry. You try and avoid as you can’t afford to feed them. It’s embarrassing. My kids have no shoes. He’s come home with black eyes ‘cos he’s the poor kid."
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anglicare, social policy, food

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