Debunking the ration cards myth: arguments in favour

The issue of demographic preservation and, in this context, combating poverty became the core of the discussion at the round table conducted by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on 3 February.

By providing an interesting opportunity to propose concrete steps to safeguard food accessibility for low-income citizens, the Civic Chamber convened a vigorous brainstorm session in the video conference format, which gathered almost 120 participants, including the representatives of the government authorities, academia, and expert community. 

“Last year, there were about 18.5 million people in our country living below the poverty line; most of them were families with children,” emphasized in the opening statement Yulia Ogloblina, Chair of the Civic Chamber’s Commission on Development of Agricultural Sector and Rural Areas who moderated the discussion. “Food expenditures form the major part of poor families’ expenditures in general. They often tend to buy the cheapest food of a dubious origin and quality, which can affect the growth and health of the children living in such families.” 

If the state saves on providing targeted support to this exceptionally vulnerable group (according to various calculations, such assistance is estimated to amount from 300 to 400 billion rubles), trillions of rubles will have to be spent on healthcare, Yulia Ogloblina stressed. According to Ms Ogloblina, some “groups of influence” are against the introduction of “food stamps” or “ration cards”, as they consider it a comeback to the outdated distribution system of the time when food was scarce, which in its turn demonstrated the failure of the government policy. However, according to a survey conducted by VCIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Centre), 78 percent of the citizens are in favour of introducing ration cards, while only 19 percent are against. 

Natalia Pochinok, Chair of the Commission on Social Policy, Labour Relations and Support of Veterans, gave an example of the “individualization of needs”, applied with regard to the provision of medicines. She suggests applying the same method to guarantee quality food for low-income citizens and families with many children and prevent them from buying tobacco products and alcohol. Ration kits or cards could be a solution to this problem. 

Ration cards project presented by Yulia Nazarova, Chair of The All-Russian Charity Foundation Foodbank Rus, is a telling example of the effective approach to problem solving. 

How does it work? “We choose lists of families with children and give them 1000 bonus points per month. Families can use these points in the supermarket net of our partner, the Magnet company. They cannot buy everything using these bonus points; there are restrictions on tobacco products and alcohol. Every month Magnet sends us a report on the use of the bonus points, and then we pay for the food the families have bought. Everything is done quite quickly online, which to some extend simplifies the process of purchase control”, the Foundation’s chair spoke in detail about her undertaking.  

This is a pilot project implemented by the Foundation in Saint Petersburg, as well as in the Vladimir and Rostov regions. 1000 families are already covered. Now the Foundation is finalizing this project and carrying out a kind of “correction of errors”. “We are ready to the large-scale expansion of the project to other regions”, Yulia Nazarova noted. 

“The Russian Federation is considered by the international organizations of the UN system and, in particular, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, as a developed country, which has achieved significant success in providing food to its own population,” Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation (LOR), noted in a brief speech. 

“We must remember and emphasize that Russia has finally put an end to hunger. This is important for our country, where the memory of the famine after the civil war, collectivization and crop failures of the post-war 1946 and 1947 years is still alive. Russia eliminated hunger as a phenomenon in a relatively short period of time, which is an outstanding historic achievement,” Oleg Kobiakov continued. “In 2018, the share of Russian citizens over the age of 18 who experienced a state of hunger did not exceed 1.6 percent. This is less than statistical margin of error and FAO operates with this indicator, starting from the level of 2.5 percent. 

“At the same time, no country in the world can boast that it has finally overcome hunger. Unfortunately, the number of hungry people continues to grow, increasing by 10 million people annually. Over the past five years, the number of starving people has increased by almost 60 million. A year ago, 690 million people were starving on the planet. The coronavirus pandemic last year increased that number by more than 100 million.  

“In addition, one billion people suffer from malnutrition, ranging from vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies to overweight and obesity. Finally, one more billion cannot afford a full-fledged food basket (what is called a healthy diet) due to low incomes. Thus, out of almost eight billion, almost three billion of our neighbours on the planet are experiencing problems with food supply. 

“There are many positive examples of solving these problems. As a rule, this refers to the responsibility and care of the state for its citizens. Our discussion today has already reached a high level of elaboration of this topic. The mission of the Civic Chamber is to summarize experience and opinions and give recommendations in order to pave the way to legislative initiative. 

“As for concrete solutions, the Russian Federation, as a developed country, needs to be guided in practical terms by the experience of its own kind. For today, these are either ration cards or food stamps. At the same time, it is necessary to consider not only the food distribution through the retail network. For example, the United States has been applying successfully for many decades a system of food stamps. France has widely distributed coupons for food, and it is the way to save 40-60 percent of the check (Ticket Restaurant). These coupons are accepted by most catering companies. Thus, support is also provided to the catering sector, which has become especially important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also institutional nutrition, which is provided in enterprises, universities, kindergartens and schools. Russia has accumulated a huge and successful experience in this sphere.” 

Oleg Kobiakov concluded, that the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation in Moscow “is ready to provide maximum technical and methodological assistance to the Civic Chamber in finalizing the proposals made by the participants of the discussion for their further consideration at the legislative and executive levels.” 

Background information: 

Among the ways to ensure the availability of safe and high-quality food for low-income citizens, along with the support of domestic producers of agricultural products and food, FAO identifies the following: 

• introduction of a programme of targeted support to needy categories of people, involving the issuance of special cards, which are credited monthly with a certain amount of money or points for the purchase of essential products of domestic production in local stores;
• organization of social nutrition and provision of food aid (for example, food packages with goods made by local producers);
• organization of a distribution system of products of small forms of management, excluding the occurrence of extra charges, in the form of a specialized retail network (including state participation), municipal stores, markets and non-stationary trade objects.