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Food
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What does this mean?
Your right to food is connected to your right to be alive and to have your basic needs met. You should have safe water, nutritious food, the best healthcare possible, a clean environment and information to help you stay well.
The Government has lots of programmes and campaigns to encourage you to eat healthily, like www.healthyireland.ie
There is a sugar tax in Ireland to make unhealthy sugary foods more expensive.
EXAMPLE: In some schools, there are hot meals and breakfast clubs that help you eat healthily during the day.
Learn more about this right
Do I have this right in Ireland?
- Article 24 of the UNCRC says “You have the right to the best health care possible, safe water to drink, nutritious food, a clean and safe environment, and information to help you stay well.”
- Article 27 of the UNCRC says “You have the right to food, clothing, a safe place to live and to have your basic needs met. You should not be disadvantaged so that you can’t do many of the things other kids can do.”
- Under the Social Welfare Consolidated Act 2005, it’s the right of most parents to get a payment of Child Benefit per child. This payment is intended to help make sure your basic needs are met.
- There is no specific right to food in Irish law.
Doing a project?
- The right to food is about having a nutritious diet and making sure that food is available, accessible and affordable to everyone.
- The Government can’t force people to eat healthily. They run information campaigns and programmes to help people make healthy choices.
- In 2016, 10% of the population experienced food poverty. This means they were not able to have a nutritious diet because they could not get or afford good food.
- One quarter (25%) of children under 14 in Ireland are obese or overweight. The Government is trying to reduce this through different programmes, like ‘A healthy weight for Ireland 2016-2025’.
- Only 1 in 4 children in Ireland eat fruit and vegetables daily.
- The FAO right to food guidelines have a checklist that helps countries make the right to nutritious food a reality.
- Barnardos’ ‘Rise Up for Children Report’ (2015) highlights that one child in six in Ireland is living in a household experiencing food poverty.
- A Schools Meals Programme was launched in 2015 which allowed students in DEIS schools to get nutritious food at low prices. Breakfast costs 60 cent and a lunch costs 1.40euro.
- Goal 2 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to end hunger, achieve food security and better nutrition, and to promote sustainable agriculture.
Links to other organisations
- European Food Information Council – Get some tips on staying healthy from the European Food Information Council
- Safefood – Take a look at the food pyramid and find out more about healthy eating from Safe Food.
- Healthy Food for All – Find out about what food poverty is from Healthy Food for All
- Foodcloud – How much food is wasted globally every year? Find out more about food waste from Food Cloud
- FAO – Food and Agriculture Organisation for the United Nations explaining the right to food
