How to talk about food poverty

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In 2024, our research into communicating food poverty highlighted the need for a clear and consistent approach to talking about food poverty on the island of Ireland.

As result we commissioned FrameWorks UK to draw up a practical guide, How to Talk about Food Poverty, which outlines ways to help build understanding and support, while avoiding triggering unhelpful ways of thinking.

Recommendations

Here are FrameWork UK’s recommendations in brief:

1. Spell out what ‘food poverty’ really means

We need to be explicit and clear, whenever we communicate about food poverty, that it is about people not being able to access and afford enough healthy food. This will ensure we are not assuming knowledge or asking people to interpret for themselves.

2. Make a moral case for action

When we appeal to deeply held values of compassion and justice, we establish a shared reason to care and show why addressing food poverty matters. This combination of compassion and justice is about calling out what is not right, and naming the systemic changes we need to address inequalities. Grounding our case in compassion and justice allows us to tap into more collective, ‘can do’ thinking.

3. Explain how food poverty happens

How we explain problems sets up the solutions to them. Explaining the systemic causes of food poverty sets up the case for systemic solutions. While the existence of poverty – and food poverty – is widely accepted, we need to build public understanding of how poverty happens, and the shortcomings in our food system that both cause and exacerbate food poverty.

4. Show how food poverty impacts people’s lives

We need to build understanding that the impact of food poverty goes beyond hunger and show how it impacts people’s physical and mental health, and other aspects of life. Instead of just ‘telling’ people that food poverty impacts people’s lives in these ways, we need to use explanation to ‘show’ people how. When we explain in this way, it leaves no space for food poverty to be minimised.

5. Embed solutions into communications

For people to get behind change, they need to believe that it is possible as well as necessary. To achieve this, we need to spell out the solutions to food poverty that we are advocating for – from upstream measures and changes in policy that would prevent it from happening in the first place, to support in our communities that can alleviate food poverty now. We need to share examples of what works, and name who has the power to make these changes. We need to do this upfront and often.

Download

How to Talk About Food Poverty [PDF]