RISING child food poverty in the capital is becoming an “urgent public health crisis,” a charity has warned, as it called on the government to launch a rapid review into the problem. 

London-based child poverty charity the Childhood Trust said children are at risk of malnutrition or worse this winter, with more families experiencing food insecurity amid the cost-of-living crisis. 

A poll commissioned by the trust found that among a random sample of 280 children aged between seven and 16 in the capital, 40 per cent reported being food insecure over the past two months. 
 
The trust’s chief executive Laurence Guiness said: “It is shocking and appalling that food insecurity is now widespread and normalised for a very large minority of children living in London, many of whom were already badly impacted by, and struggling to recover from, the Covid-19 pandemic.