by Stephanie Mander, Manager of the CAS Social Justice team.

This article was first published in The Herald on 27th June 2026.

Across Scotland, the cost-of-living crisis has been rising like an unrelenting tide, pulling thousands further under each month. Hardship has become a constant undertow, with food poverty one of the acute pressures that has moved from exception to everyday reality.  
Our advisers across local CABs know first-hand that for people on low incomes, food is the first thing to be cut when energy bills rise, rents increases or debts mount.  
The impact is profound. Families choose meals based on what they can afford, not what they know is good for them, and children who are not eating well struggle to learn, develop and connect socially.  
Mothers like Jody often sacrifice their own wellbeing so their children do not go without. Jody lives on a rural island and accesses social security because long-term illness limits her ability to work. Her children stay every weekend, but she receives no child-related support, and her income is stretched to breaking point. Rising energy and food costs mean Jody has needed help from her local CAB, often eating less so her children have enough. Rural and island life often brings higher costs for food, travel and energy.  
Food poverty happens when powerful economic currents pull people into hardship, from low wages and insecure work to inadequate social security. Systems meant to keep people afloat are failing. After years of austerity, overstretched public services and rising prices, people have nowhere left to turn except food banks, which were never designed to be a permanent part of our society. 
Yet there’s a danger that the public and political debate treats food poverty as episodic, sparked by supermarket price surges or spikes in food bank usage. Across our network, people are forced to return again and again, trapped in cycles of hunger, stress and shame. This is not about isolated moments; it’s about inescapable structural deprivation. 
It’s not right that people cannot afford the food we all need to stay healthy and well. Change is possible. Together we can push for bold action to ensure people have enough money to afford good food, whether through adequate wages or social security that reflects real living costs.  
And by working upstream and moving away from crisis-driven responses, lasting change across the food system can be delivered. Cheap food built on intensive production, low pay and weak supply chains are not the answer. Prices are kept down by shifting the real costs onto farmers, food workers and the environment, while nutrition is compromised. This harms all of us and adds pressure to an already strained NHS.  

Systemic thinking must guide food policy, including the Scottish Government’s work on price caps for essential food while policy development must strengthen human rights protections, including the right to food. 

Scotland’s new statutory Food Commission is responsible for advising on, and scrutinising cross-cutting food plans across national, local authority and health board levels. As an independent body it can bring the leadership needed to connect food production, and health and climate policy, embedding the systemic thinking needed to make good food genuinely accessible. 

Building on change already in motion will help ensure that food poverty is not normal, not inevitable and not something Scotland has to accept.