IBGE reveals a picture of the financial difficulty millions of Brazilians face in feeding themselves | National newspaper

It’s a quick visit. In the supermarket, Elaine does more math than shopping. The hardest thing is the subtraction.

“If I’m taking flour, I have to take oil, and I don’t have money for oil, because oil is expensive. So, I’d rather eat biscuits than flour.” Leave it for next time,” says Elaine Lourdes da Silva.

She is the mother of two young children, but we wouldn’t find them shopping.

“I often avoid bringing kids to the supermarket, you know? Because they are looking at something and wanting it,” reveals Elaine.

Without children, the only shopping companion is the amazement itself.

“People! Oh my God!” Eileen cried as she looked at the price of one kilogram of beans.

Eileen and her husband are unemployed. The The only guaranteed income for a family of four is emergency assistance of R$250, a condition that does not allow even to approach some shelves.

Too short a shopping list lacking essential nutrients. Corridors you have not even visited with vitamins and proteins …

“Meat? Meat?” asks Elaine, laughing nervously. “No. Meat? What is meat, guys?”

The IBGE Household Budget Survey (POF) showed that even Before the pandemic, 41% of the Brazilian population was living in a situation similar to that of the Ellen familyNot making sure to eat food at home in sufficient quantity and quality.

“A lot of times we sleep and wake up worrying about what we’re going to eat the next day,” he reveals.

The survey measured this concern in values. According to IBGE, in 2018, in Brazil, each family member spent an average of R$209 per month on food.. The survey asked how much Brazilians would need to spend to eat the basics. The difference between what’s in the cart and what’s missing is 66.7%. The answers indicated that the value per person should be R$348.

The POF is a very detailed survey, and is done every five years. Therefore, this 2018 data reflects the situation in which Brazil entered the epidemic. Experts say, Since then, the problem has worsened and reached an increasing number of Brazilians.

For comparison only, we were at the time of POF with an average unemployment rate of 12%. Today, we have unemployment around 14.5%Economist Ricardo Henrique said. “And we cannot forget that informal work, which has traditionally served as a means of mitigating crises, in this period of the pandemic has not behaved in this way either.”

The research also shows that in Brazil before the pandemic, financial problems went far beyond the reach of the supermarket. approx Half of the population (46.2%) in 2018 lived in a household that had a late bill, especially water, electric or gas expenditures (37.5%).

Hunger makes any financial stress an urgent issue.

“We have retreated. The instability associated with hunger and food insecurity calls for this urgent address, so that we can deal with immediate poverty alleviation. We need a more modern family allowance in terms of income transfer value and number of beneficiaries, but at the same time, We need this family allowance to be integrated with other policies. Social assistance policies, health policies, unemployment prevention policies‘ says Henrik.

“I got beans and sugar and rice and milk and biscuits,” said Eileen.

The difference between today’s reality and the job is in the shopping cart.

“My dream is to get to the market and fill the cart. Fill the cart, anyway. But she can’t,” Elaine laments.