An unemployed father cries when he talks about hunger: "Yesterday we ate rice and beans, and some days we don't have it"

Electrician Marcio Cesar Costa, from CuritibaHe has been unemployed since 2021 and struggles daily to keep food on the table for him, his wife and four children.

On Monday (4), he said the family meal was rice, beans, and “vine,” but he remembers, moving on, that they didn’t always have something to eat.

Yesterday we ate rice and beans. There are days when this is not available at home […] Because I don’t have a grain of rice in a bowl, and I’m like, “Hey, what am I going to do now?”.

The reality he and his family are facing is not an isolated case.

Research shows that 14 million people have nothing to eat in the south and southeast

The second National Survey on Food Insecurity in the Context of the Covid-19 Epidemic, released in June, analyzed food insecurity during the pandemic in Brazil and concluded that food quality had declined for many residents of the southern region, as well as worldwide. the scientist.

The survey was conducted in 26 states and in the Federal District, with interviews conducted in more than 12,000 homes. The survey was conducted between November 2021 and April 2022.

In the southern and southeastern regions, the population resides with food securitythat is, those with permanent access to quality food, has declined from 2020 to today.

Population in Food Security:

2020: 65.6 million
2021/2022: 57.7 million

The research also showed that between the periods analyzed, an additional 5 million people had food intake restrictions, that is, people who needed to skip meals due to a lack of what to eat. It’s the call Moderate food insecurity.

2020: 10.6 million
2021/2022: 15.8 million

When the passage is about people who are hungry, i.e. in severe food insecuritythe number has practically doubled in the south and southeast: there are 14 million people in this situation.

2020: 7.4 million
2021/2022: 14 million

“And those families have to wake up every day, and figure out how they’re going to feed themselves. They’re going to run then, they’re going to order food on the street, somehow trying to get food for their children, and their parents, in short, for everyone in the house. The solution comes from employment, income, health, education, But it takes time. In the meantime, people need to eat, not least because without food, people are not studying, not working and not looking for work,” explained Rodrigo Afonso, CEO of Ação da Cidadania.