On the eve of Passover 2014, it turns out that despite the serious findings in the 2011 National Insurance Institute report about nutrition insecurity among large swathes of the population, and despite the National Council for Nutrition Security Law (5771-2011), Israel has not kept its promise to foster nutrition security for its people, State Comptroller Joseph Shapira states in a blistering report on the government's activity on this matter. Shapira says that the government has not yet drawn up a comprehensive policy backed with the proper resources for effectively dealing with nutrition insecurity.
Nutrition insecurity is one of the most serious characteristics of poverty. Its practical effects are the inability to consume regularly all the nutrition components needed for a person's proper development and health. Nutrition insecurity also contributes to the perpetuation of poverty: children raised in families without nutrition security have a smaller chance of achieving success in school and breaking the cycle of poverty.
"Poverty is not destiny. In addition to the responsibility of every person to ensure his basic needs and those of his family to live with dignity, the state has the important duty of guaranteeing minimum means for members of society to live with dignity. The government's complete neglect in promoting nutrition security harms the neediest members of the population," says Shapira in the report.
The 2011 National Insurance Institute report, which is the basis for Shapira's report, found that a fifth of families and a third of families with children said that they had experienced nutrition insecurity in the past year. This was most prevalent among large families of four or more children. Half of the families in each of these groups reported that they had experienced nutrition insecurity.
In 2011, 308,000 families (894,000 individuals) with 360,000 children said that because of a lack of money they did not eat for an entire day, or reduced the size of meals for several months a year.
A "Globes" investigation found only a slight improvement in nutrition security among Israel's people in the 2012 survey. In addition, while the condition of part of the population improved, it deteriorated among other parts. For example, nutrition insecurity in families where the head of the household was under 30 rose from 15.6% to 17.6%. Rates of nutrition insecurity were high among Arabs (46%), haredim (ultra-orthodox) (24%), and new immigrant families (16%).
Shapira says that the government has not drawn up a comprehensive policy, allocates only small amounts for dealing with nutrition insecurity, and continues to rely on charities and NGOs to finance solutions for needy families. He says that all this indicates "a small to very small government commitment to deal properly with the problem of nutrition insecurity."
Shapira also says that the absence of a comprehensive government policy on nutrition security resulted in unequal handling of needy families. "A Jewish and democratic country cannot accept a reality in which hundreds of thousands of its residents report nutrition insecurity," he says.
In January 2014, Minister of Finance Yair Lapid announced that the government would allocate NIS 200 million to a nutrition security program. This program includes expanding existing school nutrition programs, finance 27,500 hot meals for welfare recipients, and food aid for 24,000 families.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 7, 2014
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