More Greek families facing food insecurity and hunger

By Vasiliki Siouti

“The Greeks are just going to have to tighten their belts”, is a phrase often heard in discussions about the country’s economic crisis. Unfortunately, however, it is proving far too literal for ever-growing numbers of Greek families.

According to the Prolepsis Institute, a Greek NGO active in public health research and preventative medicine, the problem of food insecurity – or the lack of regular access to adequately nutritious food – is one that continues to grow in the country as more and more low income households struggle to cover their families’ basic dietary needs. Moreover, a worryingly high proportion of such families now regularly go hungry.

The Prolepsis Institute, with funding from the Stavros Niarchos foundation, will be implementing its Food Aid program for a third consecutive year. The goal of the program is to provide direct aid to undernourished children in participating schools by giving them one free, nutritious meal each day while also promoting healthy eating by providing parents and students alike with useful information.

The program was launched in 34 schools in 2012 as a pilot scheme but was quickly expanded to a total of 206 schools and over 32,000 students as the scale of the problem became apparent. A shocking article in the NYT highlighting the plight of undernourished children in Greece also helped increase public awareness of the issue and generate support for the program. For the 2013-2014 period, due to the overwhelming number of schools requesting to be included in the program (over 700), it will be expanded again providing food aid to over 50,000 students. 

Prolepsis head, Athena Linos, a professor of medicine at the University of Athens, said that, “the crisis affects families who often struggle to meet the nutritional needs of all of their members. In some areas over 60% of the population is affected by food insecurity, and children are the first to suffer.”

According to a survey of families taking part in the scheme that the institute conducted via questionnaire, 53% said that they were unable to cover their basic monthly needs, while 14% of families said that they had reduced the quantity as well as the quality of the food they consumed due to lack of money.

A total of 60% of families said that they had reduced the quality of the food they ate or were no longer able to afford food they used to purchase in the past. This often has a direct effect on the health of children. According to Ms Linos, one of the first signs of an increase in food insecurity is an increase in obesity rates among children as families opt for cheap, low-quality calorie-rich foods such as bread and pasta.

However the problem seems to be even greater for some families with almost one in four families surveyed experiencing not only the effects of food insecurity, but hunger as well. That is, there were some days when they simply could not afford to eat.