Inflation is squeezing households and there are reports that high food prices are causing children to eat more school meals to be fed. A survey by, among others, Majblomman and Save the Children has shown that one in eight single parents with low income have had difficulty feeding themselves or their family.
The author Lena Andersson is nevertheless critical of politicians saying that children go hungry in Sweden, and believes that if this is true, it is the parents' fault. In a well-known column in Svenska Dagbladet, she mentions oatmeal as food cheap enough to feed everyone.
– The filling food is the cheapest food, she said in Aktuellt when she defended the chronicle in a debate with Eric Rosén, editor of Aftonbladet.
He believes that the chronicle has led to an irrelevant debate about the word hunger that takes the focus away from the problem of child poverty.
"Can't wait"
Children's rights organisations also believe that the debate has been too narrow. Save the Children believes that more needs to be done to ensure that all children in Sweden have a reasonable standard of living and points out that many families today are forced to make difficult trade-offs between different expenses and that children risk being squeezed when costs increase.
"We have many indications that children have had a tougher time and measures need to be taken now. No one questions parental responsibility, but there is also a state responsibility to comply with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, says Sofia Rönnow Pessah, adviser, children in socio-economic vulnerability.
Critique: Much more than hunger
Åse Henell, Secretary General of Majblomma, points out that the number of families applying for help with financial support from the organization has increased recently. The Salvation Army, among others, also testifies that families' need for help has increased. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT
"We don't think you should neglect the concepts of hunger and starvation, but at the same time we trust reports that schoolchildren are hungry at weekends and that the Red Cross and the City Mission have more visitors to soup kitchens and breakfasts, these are facts," says Åse Henell, Secretary General of Majblomman.
"The fact that children are not allowed to participate in leisure activities and in the social community are also consequences of poverty.