Nearly £5,000 worth of free healthy food is unclaimed every week in Lewisham, with only 66% of vouchers being collected.

Over 2,000 pregnant people and children are eligible for the Government’s Healthy Start programme in Lewisham, but nearly half of those eligible for the scheme have not signed up. This has fuelled concerns that many families are going hungry as a result.

Lewisham Councillors took to social media to raise awareness of the scheme with Juliet Campbell, councillor for Blackheath, telling people to “check their eligibility”.

The website foodjusticefinder.com was set up in order to help councils spread awareness of their food poverty schemes, targeting the UK’s most vulnerable areas.

Footballer Marcus Rashford, whose #ENDCHILDFOODPOVERTY scheme prompted an increase in the value of Healthy Start vouchers, wrote in an open letter in The Sunday Times last month that said: “The National Food Strategy has shown that these schemes, along with free school meals during term time and the Healthy Start scheme for pre-schoolers only reach a fraction of those who need them. Those who miss out get by through meagre packed lunches, skipping lunch entirely or filling up on cheap, calorific, low nutrient food.”

2.6 million children are currently affected by food insecurity in the UK and research carried out by the Food Foundation found that around “one in seven adults live in homes where people have skipped meals, eaten smaller portions or gone hungry all day because they could not afford or access food.”

Anna Taylor, Executive Director of the Food Foundation told PA media: “The situation is rapidly turning from an economic crisis to a health crisis. Food banks cannot possibly be expected to solve this…Bailing out with emergency food parcels is not going to work.”