One in six poor Hong Kong families go hungry, Oxfam survey says

Aug 18, 2011, 4:19 GMT

Hong Kong - One in six poor families living in affluent Hong Kong see their children going hungry on a regular basis because they cannot afford food, a report by Oxfam Hong Kong said Thursday.

The survey, conducted by Hong Kong University, found 16 per cent of families living below the poverty line were in a state of 'high food insecurity,' meaning their children were often hungry.

Around one third said they worried about not being able to feed their children in the future.

Seven out 10 admitted feeding leftovers to their children an average of 3.5 times a week, while one in six said they often ate food which had passed or almost passed its expiry date with 6 per cent falling sick as a result over the last year.

The survey questioned 600 families with children under 15 between May and July whose income was less than half the median household income of 9,800 Hong Kong dollars (1,250 US dollars) for a family of four.

According to Oxfam, the city of 7 million, of which around 100,000 are US-dollar millionaires, has 534,100 people in 144,400 families with children who fall below the poverty line.

Kalina Tsang, of Oxfam Hong Kong, said the survey findings were staggering and called on the government to increase meal allowances for the poor and to improve meal services in the light of growing inflation.

'Poor families with children are being hard hit by the food price crisis, and the situation will worsen in the second half of 2011,' Tsang said.

Oxfam said the trends in Hong Kong mirrored those all over the world with the number of hungry people in the world exceeding 1 billion for the first time in history.

Hong Kong has one of the world's biggest rich-poor divides, according to a 2010 Oxfam survey which found the richest 10 per cent of households earn 27 times more than the poorest 10 per cent.