Challenge Poverty Week 2024: Policy Briefing 4 A Scotland where we live without hunger

How do we get there? • Improve dignified and ‘cash first’ food insecurity responses, including boosting the value and administrative responsiveness of the Scottish Welfare Fund; • Supermarkets should commit to setting the lowest prices, including cutting prices, on key basic food items; and • Deliver universal free school breakfast and lunch provision to all pupils in Scotland. [...] As part of the right to an adequate standard of living, and to realise our human rights, people need to be able to access food that meets their dietary, social and cultural needs. [...] The strategy commits funding to eight cash-first partnerships across Scotland and places focus on increased access to money and debt advice.6 Cash first approaches are critical to addressing the root cause of food insecurity, which is the lack of access to an adequate income, either through work or social security. [...] The universal credit standard allowance (£85 for a single adult from April 2023) falls well short of this indicative level for what’s needed to afford essentials.8 As well as taking steps to deliver a Minimum Income Guarantee, the Scottish Government should boost the value and administrative responsiveness of the Scottish Welfare Fund and act quickly to implement the findings of its review.9 The f. [...] There is evidence that soaring inflation has, in part, been caused by so-called ‘greedflation’ in the private sector.13 The ‘rebuilding of profit margins’ during the cost of living crisis have protected the profit of the large supermarkets, and the income paid to their shareholders, at a time when people are struggling to make ends meet.14 Inflation hits people on low incomes the hardest, and the.