A new report by the Fafo Research Foundation shows an alarming increase in food poverty in Norway. According to the latest data, families with children and newly arrived refugees from Ukraine and Syria are particularly disadvantaged. About 69 per cent of food funds report an increased demand for food after the coronavirus pandemic, writes Nya Dagbladet.
Fafo Social Science Foundation staff conducted a nationwide study of the Norwegian food distribution programme. Among other things, the study focused on the demand for food aid and how it has changed in recent years. It also examined which population groups need food aid and why, Nya Dagbladet reported.
Researchers collected data on 200 food distributions to about a thousand food recipients in the country. As it turned out, more than half of the food aid recipients were families with children and recently arrived refugees in Norway, mostly from Ukraine and Syria. 69 per cent of food funds also indicate that more people need food now than before the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are used to thinking of Norwegian poverty as a relative phenomenon. It means you are worse off than others, but you still have the essentials. The increasing number of people who really don’t have enough to eat suggests that there may be pockets of absolute poverty in Norway, i.e. when people lack the most basic necessities of life,” said Tone Flötten, head of the study and author of the report.
The report also shows that people who work part-time or occasionally and families with children receive food aid, although these groups are not usually at high risk of food poverty in Norway. As the author of the article points out, food poverty is also on the rise in Sweden, as Swedish charitable institutions have sounded the alarm.
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