Free Food--A Policy Proposal

Here is my proposal: Every supermarket is required to stock a range of items, basic food stuffs of various kinds, probably also a small range of toiletries and cleaning products, that are free at the point of sale to anyone who walks through the door

You still have to scan them through the checkout with all your other groceries, because the supermarket still gets to make an appropriate profit, but it adds $0.00 to your bill

I mean we already have this whole mechanism for distributing food to people, so why doesn’t the government hijack it? You get to erase both the stigma and logistical problems of food banks, and the cruelty of the welfare system; and less gaps for people to fall through

So, to look at some rough numbers, we can look at the Otago Uni Food Cost Survey, which says to feed a family of four is $216/week, plus $35/week for toiletries and cleaning products; and Stats says there are approximately 1.76m households in NZ

Now, I don’t expect that every household will eat for free; some people will want fresh fruit and veg, and name-brand toilet paper, so let’s say $160/week/household.  $160 × 52 × 1,76m = $14.6b*

That’s in the order of half again the current welfare budget, it’s a lot, but not an impossible sum.  And it would probably be less than that, with monopsony power and I think my definitions of household don’t line up.  Besides, most would get back any tax increase in free food

* These are 2020 numbers