Food Day, in Italy 430 thousand minors forced to give up food and social life

In Italy the burden of the high cost of living falls on the younger generations. In 2024, the latest data available, there were around 430 thousand, 5.6% of minors under 16 years of age, children and young people living in families forced to make sacrifices regarding food or social life. In 2021 they were 5.3%, around 419 thousand. This is what emerges from the ActionAid report on food poverty in Italy which examines the difficulties related to purchasing food, the most serious forms of food insecurity and family spending thanks to the analysis of the Dams index or material and/or social food deprivation based on data from the European Eu-Silc survey on living conditions and income, on the Fies scale from the FAO and Istat data on food poverty.

The alarm for children between 6 and 11 years old

The report, produced on the occasion of Food Day which falls on Friday 16 October, highlights that there are those who cannot afford fruit and vegetables or a protein meal every day, for example based on meat, fish or a vegetarian equivalent, and those who cannot invite friends home every now and then to play or eat something. The strongest alarm concerns children between 6 and 11 years old. Between 2021 and 2024, the share of those experiencing problems in accessing food and socializing goes from 3.8% to 6.8%: around 220 thousand children, almost 90 thousand more than three years before. Financial difficulties that lead to giving up books, trips, free time activities from school or new clothes and shoes.

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