Health is not a piece of cake for the homeless

On 11 July, Church Lane Evangelical Church in Stafford invited its delegates to Next Meal’s second international conference. Members from Word 4 Weapons, the local NHS trust, and soup kitchens congregated to share their experiences with homelessness and bring to life the discussion of nutrition.

Up first to the podium was the director of House of Bread,William Morris, who introduced himself and welcomed all delegates to the conference. With a breath of certainty, he stated a common quality amongst the audience - their need to give to others with no expected return, which is a characteristic that all the delegates saw in their volunteers and colleagues back at home. As Martin Stone, the founder of Next Meal, headed up to the podium next, his comforting and lively personality brought the room together. And now, with the audience ready and attentive, Mr Stone introduced the lead dietitian of east London’s NHS foundation trust, and founder of Feast With Us, Hannah Style.

As Mrs Style headed up to the stage, with her clinical research projected on the screen above, she uncovered the absence of essential nutrients in the diet of homeless people. Without a consistent nutrient rich meal, homeless people face the long-term consequences of malnutrition. This can be cardiovascular disease, a reduced immune response, or reduced muscle and tissue mass. As Mrs Style served the preliminary finds of her research to the audience, an increasing number of heads nodded to the recognition of this issue. A concern for soup kitchen members that knew, to alleviate this ever-growing problem, they required further assistance in their charitable efforts.

With healthy food items having a shorter shelf life and higher cost to canned or processed foods, soup kitchens are forced to purchase and accept nutritionally deficient food items that fail to meet the dietary needs of homeless service users.

A female delegate in their 60s said that around 80 per cent of the received donated food they serve to the homeless are high sugar foods. And when it came to purchasing food with the charity’s own money, she said it was a challenge to buy good quality food in bulk. A report from The Food Foundation charity found that healthy food is twice as expensive per calorie as less healthy foods, with fruits and vegetables being the most expensive food category.

However, this health crisis is not exclusive to the homeless population, and goes much further than the doors of soup kitchens. An unhealthy diet and its adverse health effects are affecting the lives of many across the UK. The new British government has pledged to address the housing crisis, as well as childhood obesity, however, seems to have forgotten the national dietary threat facing the rest of the UK population. The Financial Times reported recently that Britain has one of the worst obesity rates in Europe. A concern that many are aware of, yet, as Mrs Style states: “Is not at the front and centre where it should be”.

Issues of housing and alcohol/drug abuse usually feed the discussion of homelessness, yet Next Meal’s conference has brought nutrition to the table. The high cost of healthy food, and the nutritional inadequacy of donated food means that, for soup kitchens, meeting the dietary needs of homeless service users is no piece of cake. And without greater emphasis or action on the matter, unhealthy eating and its negative health effects will continue to “Hit our service users, who are experiencing homelessness, at much greater impact”, says Mrs Style.

By Taro Kaneko - Contributor