Food security can be defined as the condition, "when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.“ (1)

In the UK, not everyone lives in a state of food security. Its opposite, food insecurity, is a reality for many. The impact of Covid-19 and its response has highlighted this critical issue in our society and for the increasing number of households that experience it.

In the UK measures have recently been added to local and national surveys to ascertain the level of food insecurity, but currently, there is no single, reliable measure to enable Local Authority Directors of Public Health to quantify and benchmark the level of need and risk in their particular area.

Tracking the level of food insecurity at the national level is necessary to understand the scale of the problem, and trends across time. But data collection at the local area level is essential if we are to address food insecurity and its impacts, and to track the issue over time. This raises several questions: How is food insecurity measured at the local level? Who is involved in collecting these data? How are these data used? Most importantly, where are the gaps and what data do local area partners need in order to effectively intervene and support households and individuals who are experiencing food insecurity?

Please join us for a webinar on 11th March from 10am to 12:00 noon to discuss these issues with partners from across the Midlands, Southwest, the Southeast and Yorkshire & Humber.

PHE regional teams will host this webinar, which will have a two-part aim:

• Discuss how to support local systems to identify and collect data and intelligence of food insecurity, what to use it for and how to use it.

• Facilitate discussion to better understand the gaps in local data collection and what is needed to support both the short-term emergency response to food insecurity and to support sustainable approaches to collaborate to tackle widening inequalities as a result of COVID

(1) Committee on World Food Security, 39th Session, 2012, p.5http://www.fao.org/3/MD776E/MD776E.pdf

PHE Regional Teams Food Insecurity webinar