Anglicare survey shows healthy diet costs some Tasmanian families half their income

    MICHELLE PAINE
    Mercury
    December 11, 2013


SOME Tasmanian households would have to spend nearly half their income to pay for a healthy diet, says a new survey from charity Anglicare.      

A team of health experts packed a "Tasmanian Healthy Food Basket" of 44 different food items chosen to meet basic nutrition needs.

People in the Clarence and Dorset council areas were surveyed and the cost of buying the foods in each area was calculated.

Among those on income support, two-parent families faced the biggest impost, with 46 per cent of the average Clarence family's income and 43 per cent of the income of a family in Dorset required to buy the healthy food basket.

The lowest proportion needed was for an older person, about 17 per cent.

For a two-parent family, the median cost was $531.73 a fortnight in Clarence and $503.95 in Dorset.

For a single parent family, the cost was $363.28 in Clarence and $341.43 in Dorset.

For an older person, the cost was $126.66 and $120.86.

For a single adult the median cost per fortnight for the healthy food basket was $163.03 and $157.13.

Among households on average wages, a two-parent family also faced spending the biggest proportion of income on food.

A two-parent family had to pay 21 to 22 per cent while a single-parent family had to spend 14 to 15 per cent.

Researcher Ann Hughes said the report would be able to help community workers and groups come to grips with the challenges faced by people in their local area.

"This is the first proper study on this issue done in Tasmania," Ms Hughes said.

Anglicare chief executive officer Chris Jones said people dependent on government income support must be able to eat properly.

"These payments are inadequate and should be urgently reviewed so that they provide an acceptable minimum standard of living. No Tasmanian should be missing out on basics like food and having their health compromised as a result," Mr Jones said.      

Premier Lara Giddings launched the report at a community Christmas lunch at Risdon Vale Primary School and announced $270,000 to boost emergency food relief.

Most funding will go to SecondBite and Foodbank to provide about 4400 hampers to families around Tasmania for healthy food over Christmas.

Just under $35,000 will go to Produce to the People Tasmania to deliver fresh vegetables to an extra six schools on the North-West Coast.

The report also looked at how hard it was to get to a store that sold healthy food, with nearly one in 10 people having difficulty getting to food outlets because of petrol cost, a lack of transport or physical limitation.

why dont they tell them to GROW THEIR OWN.

its got nothing to do with how poor or how rich you are.. its about being LAZY..

shopping and cooking.. is hard work.. why do it if a takeway is handy god they even deliver..
and cheaper than do it yourself.

what the hell is Health food now???.

we were brought up on butter..we only had fresh bread it wasnt full of preservatives..milk was milk....we werent fat because there were limits 3 meals a day and thats it..


a small bag of lollies lasted all week...

we didnt have a food store on every corner..we didnt have junk food sitting at the checkout either and we bought a bottle of soft drink.. one at a time.. not in 24 can boxes.


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guess what we didnt have cars either..but a lot of people did have disabilities...no meals on wheels either..or food hampers to look forward to

they were tough they just got on with it..

come on.. hav e they just discovered this in dear old Tassy...