Poverty bites

Poverty bites

Food, health and poor families

Elizabeth Dowler, Sheila Turner, Barbara Dobson

CPAG, 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF, 135 pages, paperback, £9.95

Households who live on low incomes for more than a few months - whether from low wages or benefits - are unlikely to have enough money to buy the food required for good health.

An NHS plan, published in 2000, emphasised the need to increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables, yet one in 20 parents cannot afford to provide fruit at least once a day, while one in 50 children do not get three meals a day. But, so far little government activity has followed this report.

This book outlines the need for local action to change the pattern.