Task A
Introduction:
Food insecurity defines a condition to which constant access to enough food is limited due to lack of resources such as money within a given period (Bell et al., 2015). Therefore, an individual or people may not live actively as well as healthy, or have the conviction of obtaining food in a socially acceptable process. Statistic on food insecurity in Sydney reports that one in every fifty older people experienced food insecurity within a period of twelve months (Booth and Whelan, 2014). Additionally, more than one-third of the women with children in Sydney experienced a shortage of enough food due to difficulties they experience in meeting daily expenses such as food (Crawford et al., 2014). Similarly, of the individuals reviewed around the localities of Sydney, about twenty-eight percent reported the purchase of low quality of food in a bid to save money (Ingram, Ericksen and Liverman, 2012). Individuals within a society may experience food insecurity due to: one, lack of resources such as money and access to transport. Two is the inability to access affordable and nutritious food. Three is failure to access food due to geographical isolation, and lastly, lack of any knowledge about the existence of nutritious diet in a locality.
Specific Issue:
Food insecurity caused by the cost of food as well as household income is of interest to this study (Bell et al., 2015). Sydney is a town and a business hub located at the harbors of New South Wales, Australia. The harbor is accessible to most of the merchants, hence, food availability is ensured. A scenario arises that leads to the target group experiencing food insecurity (Booth and Whelan, 2014). Therefore, it is due to cost of the food and household low-income that majorly contributes to food insecurity among the target group.
Target Group:
The beneficiaries as well the target group to this study are the people from low-income households of Sydney’s family. The children from the low income earning households require to be sent to school, fed, clothed and their medical bill met time after time. Therefore, this study aims to provide the target group with strategies and solutions to address their inability to afford enough to eat and meet other bills.
Task B
Public Health Nutrition Consideration:
Currently, food insecurity is categorized among the social determinants of health which has time and again compromised the health of the children from the low-income children in Sydney’s local households (Bell et al., 2015). The low-income earners often have little food and sometimes unbalanced diet for their children. Studies reveal that food insecurity often exposes the children to clinical conditions including their parents (Farahbakhsh et al., 2016). With the low-income neighborhood, the farmers’ lack market to which the residents can purchase varieties of quality dairy products, vegetables and other foodstuffs (Stirling, 2014). The low-income neighborhoods, therefore, possess limited corner stores where food products of low nutritious value can be purchased, if available to feed the children and other families (Watts, Thorpe and Blechynden, 2015). The low nutritious value food products, therefore, lead to unbalanced diets, hence, malnutrition cases to the children from the low-income neighborhoods in Sydney.
Similarly, in case healthy foods are available, the low-income households due to lack of enough capital may not afford such foods since they are quite expensive (Stirling, 2014). Research points that most of the low-income households would try stretching their food budget with an aim of purchasing cheap food stuffs.
Therefore, the less expensive food is linked to the energy giving food which is often less nutritious (Crawford et al., 2014). Through overconsumption of the calories from the energy giving foods, such households are linked to obesity which is a major public health concern among the low-income household not only in Sydney, but also across the globe.
Besides, in the absence of food in the low-income households, studies show that such people may incur cycles of food deprivation as well as overeating (Booth and Whelan, 2014). Skipping meals by the low-income individuals may encourage them to purchase much food when money is available, thereby resulting to chronic upsets of the body systems, hence leading to weight gain (Crawford et al., 2014). Additionally, deprivation of food has been medically linked to cases of eating disorders, metabolic changes as well as an unhealthy preoccupation with food which often leads to fat storage.
Studies also report that scarcity of food among the low-income households often live in anxiety coupled with stress, leading to poor mental health (Ghattas et al., 2013). Anxieties often result from emotional pressure of food insecurity and their financial position. With limited financial access, the low-income household members may not access better health care provisions, hence increasing incidences of depression and stress by such individuals (Stirling, 2014). Studies also link stress to poor mental development to children and obesity. Children also suffer deficiency diseases during their development such as kwashiorkor, rickets and marasmus among others.
TASK C
Addressing Food Insecurity
- Right to Food Coalition
Food security is everyone right, priority and business in the globe especially in Australian community. Given the significance of food security among the community, over one hundred and fifty delegates across Australia ranging from health professionals, community development, academics and policy makers were inspired to come together in attempt to initiate and explore actions and solutions in regard to governance, population, communication aspects result into food insecurity. The role of Sydney Food Fairness Alliance was established with the aim of recognized the importance of food security. Basically, the Right to Food Coalition is made up of representatives from various organizations based in Sydney working together to sensitize the low income earners community in regard to aspects of food security. The organization believes that everyone and more so the members from the low- income communities in Sydney have the right to nutritious, culturally, affordable and access to appropriate fresh food (Booth et al, 2014). The program comes together with the aim of ensuring that the low income earners population is able to put nutritious, affordable and fresh food on the table. In attempt to ensure that the low income community manages to raise food on their tables, the organization has established Food 4 Life markets which ensure that the disabled, aged, and poor people in the community get access to nutritious and affordable food on their tables. The food is normally sourced from Australian Food Bank and donations from independent individuals and charitable organizations. The limitation of this program is inadequate funding and timing as the disadvantages group in the Australian community keeps on enlarging.
- Community Stores Program
Community stores food program is a model that aim at supporting the community to get access to nutritious food in remote community. The program builds opportunities for improved and sustainable nutrition and health food for the remote communities. The program retains and attracts public health nutrition among the remote communities in Australia. The program promote consumption of nutritious feeding among the remote communities through promotional of retail outlets which improves indigenous health outcomes through improved food supply and remote indigenous community stores. The program is based on the pillars o creating an effective and sustainable transformation of food availability among the remote communities (Stirling, 2014). The fact that working with the remote community in Australia is a challenging process and improvement of food nutrition might be a conflicting goal based on food retail business, the Community based stores work through financial support of the workforce in the remote community in Australia. The community supports the remote to access affordable and nutritious food security through the development of the personal career of various individuals by ensuring that there is no professional isolation and promoting innovation in practice. The limitation to the program is that change might be gradual and mainly depend upon working community in Australia rather than the community in general.
Proposed Strategy
Establishment of Right to food Coalition and Community Stores strategies aims at ensuring that the misfortune and less privileged people in the Australian community gets access to affordable, nutritious and quality food.
Overview
As a matter of fact, the Right to food Coalition and Community Stores strategies are fundamental programs which are aimed at ensuring quality of life through consumption of healthy food. The Right to food Coalition and Community Stores food programs are mainly implemented in Sydney, Australia. The two programs ensure that the less privileged communities are provided with financial and innovative skills which ensure that they make health choices as far as their balance diets are concerned (Stirling, 2014).Despite the fact that food insecurity is a major threat to the whole community especially among the Sydney community, Right to food Coalition and Community Stores programs normally use the available resources such as labor, capital and land to produce sufficient food for the community. Moreover, the programs adopt better health systems through innovative and financial based support programs within the community.
How the strategies work
The Right to food Coalition establishes Food 4 Life markets which ensure that the disabled, aged, and the low-income people in the community get access to nutritious and affordable food on their tables. The food is normally sourced from Australian Food Bank and donations from independent individuals and charitable organizations. Given the poor eating habits among low income earners in Sydney, the Right to Food Coalition realized the need to provide nutritious food in order to avoid the various nutritional diseases such as obesity and high blood pressure. The Food 4 Life markets provide appropriate skills of making appropriate choices in regard to their habits of consumption (Booth et al, 2014). In the same move, the community stores program in Sydney ensures that the less privileged members of the community get access to affordable, nutritious and quality health food in their balanced diet. The program support the community with employment in order to obtain finances which enables them to get access to quality food in the community stores established in Sydney, Australia.
Strengths
Strength of the Right to food Coalition and Community Stores strategies is that the programs cover a wider perspective of the community (Smith and Blumenthal, 2012). The programs which have been adopted in Sydney, Australia addresses economic conditions of the low-income households by ensuring that there exist food security and sustainability. The health programs and established health facilities ensures that the entire families are attended to, and their health conditions addressed (Gichunge et al., 2015). The households’ nutritional requirements and programs are equally addressed, and the nutritional diseases are eradicated as well with time.
Second, both the young and the adults from the less privileged communities will gain from the strategies since it accommodates the entire households (Herbert et al., 2014). Everyone from the households is cared for and helped to make choices on the food materials they consume to avoid nutritional disorders early in life.
Limitations
Acknowledging the programs by the low income earners and less privileged members of the community is a likely challenge to the program organizers (Herbert et al., 2014). The participants are people with different goals in life; therefore, getting them to conform to a single goal would be a greater challenge.
Also, the federal government would be slow at financing such good intended approaches to solving food insecurity. The government processes are often slow as various channels to achieve the actual funding takes time (Jones et al., 2013). Therefore, with little capital, the program organizers may be unable to accomplish the entire process.
Finally, the entire program may be hindered in the case of natural disasters such as drought, which may lead to failure of the agricultural activities aimed at achieving food security.
Conclusion
Food insecurity among the low-income households is a current problem in Sydney, Australia. Food insecurity may be caused by inability to access affordable, nutritious foods, failure to access food due to geographical isolation and lastly, lack of any knowledge about the existence of nutritious diet in a locality. Therefore, educational and community-based strategy would be of importance since it addresses both knowledge and health skill required by the low-income households to acquire enough food and access better healthcare at the same time. This strategy upon development will be a success to ensure food security among the low-income households in Sydney, Australia.
