EPHA briefing on Food Aid to Most Deprived Persons (MDP)

The purpose of this paper is to inform EPHAC and EPHA members and relevant stakeholders on current developments to the Food Aid to Most Deprived Persons Scheme. The MDP has been under pressure politically because it was increasingly difficult to see its relevance to agriculture policy and location within the Common Agriculture Policy as opposed to Health or Social Policy. As intervention stocks are increasing again due to crisis in the dairy, the MDP is becoming acceptable again as an intervention to help the most deprived groups in the EC.

Background

The Food Aid to Most Deprived Person scheme (MDP) originated in 1987, with the goal of stabilizing markets by contributing to reducing surplus (intervention stocks) by providing Europe’s most deprived persons with food. In 2008, the commission drew up a new legislation proposal, which allows purchases on the market. Because of this, the budget increased to 300 M in 2008 and is 500 M for in 2009.The EP is highly supportive of the program; however several Member states, notably, Germany, have been very critical of the program. The recent ECA report, states that because the program is no longer used for removing surpluses (intervention stocks were close to zero), so the link to agriculture policy has become tenuous. In the EU around 43 Million people are at risk of food poverty. [1] This figure has increased due to the global financial crises and we are now seeing a new group of those who are food insecurity and subject to food poverty, these are the ‘working poor’.

Sustainable solutions to food poverty

Food Aid is not a sustainable solution to food poverty and insecurity, and the MDP should work towards more sustainable solutions that improve access to healthy foods for Europe’s poor. Current projects and initiatives include food co-ops, community cafes, cooking and nutrition programmes and courses, farmers markets, breakfast or lunch clubs, school food provision, peer training, and any project which works to improve people’s access to healthy, affordable and sustainable food. These could be used as conduits for the distribution of food through the MDP. While all these are welcome additions to the cannon of activity they do not address the long-term issues of food insecurity/poverty and financial insecurity.

The MDP should include criteria for food distributed based on nutrition guidelines i.e. provide a healthy “food basket”. Along these lines the Commission’s current definition should be changed to include access to healthy and nutritious food . Many food aid programmes (such as Food Banks in the US and Australia have developed such guidelines). The MDP should improve its targeting so that it can make a more substantial impact on food poverty. It is estimated that the MDP, despite budget increases on average only provided 5,83 euro/person in 2008. Currently only 19 countries draw down funds, limiting its ability to effectively target Europe’s poorest and the MDPs impact at on food poverty in the EU. Much of the activity of the agencies in these countries is with migrants/asylum seekers who do not have access/rights to national welfare schemes.

The MDP should build on the diversity of local, regional and national programmes targeting food poverty, and be better linked to these programmes.

Improving the programme will require building bridges between agriculture, health and social policy. Developing nutritional criteria and improving the impact of the programme should build upon the work of DG SANCO and the recently established WHO action network on Inequalities in diet. Moreover, more work should be done to examine how food poverty and insecurity manifests itself in MS, the financial crisis impact on inequalities in diet, and finally how the MDP scheme can be developed to better meet these challenges.

The briefing is available in PDF here.

Related to EPHA Articles

 Poverty and social exclusion - a European reality
 European Nutrition and Health Report 2009
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 EP hearing on the future of the CAP after 2013
 EPHA position on the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy