The October 7 attacks and the war that followed has brought many parts of a fractured Israeli society to light. Among them is our lack of food security and the role the government plays in it. We asked culinary historian and local foodways expert Uri Mayer-Chissick to dive into this topic. Over the next several weeks, we will share five opinion pieces by him in this series.
Food played a major role in grassroots volunteering efforts after October 7. Restaurants all over the country transformed into communal kitchens, with people donating ingredients and standing in line to help peel potatoes and chop carrots. It happened quite naturally, but in this great volunteering effort, something was missing: organization. The absence of the state was clear, especially in domains like integration, supply, planning, and transportation. Unfortunately, this wasn’t surprising: our food security and safety are lacking even in peacetime. (The Ministry of Agriculture claims food safety is physical, social, and financial access to an adequate amount of food in line with nutritional and cultural needs and preferences for an active, healthy life. Meanwhile, they define food security as sufficient caloric intake per capita).
Making food safety and security a responsibility of the state, part of its basic policy, would allow the state to fulfill its role in times of peace and war alike. A solid infrastructure would enable the state to look after its citizens in a far more systematic and organized manner than any civilian effort, which relies on the good will of volunteers. But when the state doesn’t assume its responsibility to provide food security and safety to citizens in times of routine, it will have trouble to do so in times of crisis.
What do we need the state for?
The state has an important role in ensuring the food safety and security of its citizens. During the war, our individual actions made a considerable difference, but they could have been far more significant had they been organized. Various examples for efficient mechanisms exist worldwide (see below), and we should be learning from them.
First and foremost, the state should create a dedicated body with sufficient powers and resources. The current government bodies defined by law — Bituach Leumi (the National Insurance Institute of Israel) and the National Food Security Council — lack the means and authority to achieve their goals.
A national school lunch program, in which every child receives a cooked meal on weekdays, is an internationally tried, UN-recommended method for confronting food insecurity. At the moment, Israel is far from implementing it. In 2021, more than 665,000 children suffered from food insecurity, yet only 454,000 children were included in the national lunch program.
Similarly, Bituach Leumi’s old-age pension falls short of satisfying the needs of senior citizens. Since Bituach Leumi started publishing relevant data in 2010, the number of people suffering from food insecurity has been on the rise. After a relatively moderate increase from 2016 to 2021, the number of adults suffering from food insecurity jumped more than 10 percent in 2021-2022.
These data demonstrate an urgent need for action.
What needs to be done?
– Create a universal national food lunch program, providing each child a cooked meal during school hours. Such programs exist in other countries, such as Norway and Japan. According to the National Food Security Council, the estimated cost of such a program is two billion NIS (about 532 million USD) a year.
– Strengthen the welfare system on the national and local level, to make sure that the old-age pension can support the basic needs of a senior citizen.
– Provide the Food Security Council with the authority to work with government ministries, and build an infrastructure that can support the food security of all citizens consistently, so when the next crisis comes, we are better prepared.
Research assistance: Shay Haivry