BCP Council has said it is “working tremendously hard” to address food insecurity issues in light of a report which concluded the region ranked the third highest in the country for people struggling to afford food.

The authority’s area was also the eighth highest placed local authority region for people that worry about food in a recent analysis by the charity Food Foundation and Sheffield University.

Speaking to the Echo in response to the findings, Cllr Nicola Greene, Chair for the Health and Wellbeing Board, said: “We have been working tremendously hard to address food insecurity, work that had commenced prior to the Covid-19 pandemic which we know has had a devastating impact on so many households across the country.

“In autumn 2019 we led a Dorset hidden hunger event, with support from partnering agencies and numerous members of the community, to highlight the challenges of food insecurity locally.

“As a result we funded a community food coordinator to work with the network of voluntary food agencies and community organisations to raise awareness and support for residents to help improve the situation.”

Following the introduction of a community food coordinator the Access to Food Partnership scheme was set up in March 2020 to help those struggling with food access.

Cllr Greene added: “We understand how vital this issue is to our residents which is why we will continue to help as many people impacted by food insecurity as we are able to.”

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole is part of the sustainable food network meaning the area “is doing things to try to address this issue with the limited resources that are available” said Doctor Megan Blake, one of the researchers at Sheffield University who produced the report.

She said: “There are more than 100 food using projects operating in Bournemouth. Many are food banks but there are pantries and cafes, training centres and a lot more. But it is a place with lots of challenges and lots of really fantastic assets that could be unconstrained through changes in some of the local structures.

“Some of this involves working together to move people onward once the services provided by, for example a food bank are not needed, but the ability to afford, access, and use supermarket food is still out of reach.”

Dr Blake also cited “high rates of people who are disabled, a large proportion of people who are in low waged occupations, a very large number of single person households” as some of the factors as to why the BCP area ranked so high in the report.

The senior lecturer mentioned that while the town did have a good physical availability of food, other factors need to be addressed.

She added: “We absolutely need to address the economic barriers that people face, but it is not enough.

“To ensure people have the food that they need we need to repair the effects of food insecurity in the places where people live.

“This involves local scale interventions that work with the specific challenges that face those communities so that we can build them up, reduce vulnerability and increase resilience to crisis.”

Councillor Greene added that the council takes food insecurity “incredibly seriously” and hopes to eliminate insecurities.

She said: “We have adopted the theme of eliminating food insecurity as one of the two themes for the BCP Health and Wellbeing Board.

“The Access to Food Partnership’s vision is a BCP where everyone can feed themselves and their family nutritious food, all of the time.

“In my role as Chair of the Board, I have taken on the role of championing this cause and key to this is making it acceptable for people to feel they can talk about food insecurity.

“We are currently working with Citizens Advice BCP to administer the summer support scheme, ensuring that those who need support with access to food and utilities can access the support they need.”