Britain's Hidden Hunger

[KanelbulleKing]

www.itv.com/hub/britains-secret-hunger-exposure/2a7613a0001

Just watching this on catch up and I'm sobbing. How has Britain sunk so low as a country that children are frightened of school holidays because they know they'll be hungry? Children thinking it's Christmas because their family has received a few bags of basic food items?

The existence of food banks in one of the richest countries in the world is a national disgrace. My MIL is knocking on 80 and spends her spare time peeling potatoes and carrots for the lunches her church provides for anyone who needs them. She should be putting her feet up and being served herself but she won't because she's too worried about her 'guests' going hungry.

Time for change?

Utmost sympathy with anyone going through poverty, I've been below the breadline myself at one stage too. It's horrible.

Just to add though (not applicable to everyone of course) people seem to pump out kids without being aware of the financial implications. We need to be educating kids in school about managing money BEFORE they go out into the world to fend for themselves. Not everyone has a decent role model at home to learn from.

I didn't even know what interest was when I left school. Or how taxes worked. Or what a mortgage was. Yet I could do algebra. Guess what I've needed more as an adult

Good for you oliversmummy but there is no harm in me buying it for the food bank, is there?

AnnieLee90 I thought about this thread in the supermarket buying 3 different shower gels for allergies/excema. Mines the cheapest (Simple or Sanex), DSs is £6 (Aveeno), and DHs is on prescription.
That's almost £15 just on washing ourselves.

I'm another one who puts 'nice' brands into the foodbank collection.

The Mum who went to the cookery classes could cook; she said herself she went because it meant a meal for that day, plus time with the kids who were at the class. Several people who go to the cookery classes attached to the food bank here do so for that reason - it's basically an extra meal

Is there any political party who would tackle the child maintanance shambles that is going on in this country? Its a disgrace of the highest order angry

They won't. The majority of non-paying NRP's are male so there is no politican will at all

CMS have a large range of powers easily at their fingertips. They have several they don't even need to go to court for (including taking money from a bank account either as a one off or on a regular basis) then a whole range from charging orders to removing driving licenses and, ultimately, prison that requires a court order, but they never do them

Even when the bulk of the maintenance money they owed was owed to the government (back when the RP on benefits only got to keep the first £20 a week) there was no political will to tackle the issue

I’ve watched the programme and children being afraid of the holidays isn’t uncommon in schools. It’s awful to think that some children who come to breakfast club and get one hot meal a day at lunch will go hungry over school breaks.

Myself and colleagues set up a holiday breakfast club and lunch club which is open to everyone. The uptake last summer was astounding.

For those who have used food banks can I ask a question please?

I do a monthly shop for our local one, until now it's been predominantly tinned foods, pasta, rice and toiletries. Would it be a good idea to do a shop full of stock cubes/pots and spices instead?

I'm limited to 1 x £40 shop a month so want to make it as useful as possible.

I do an additional November shop of advent calendars and selection boxes because every kid should have an advent calender!

For those who have used food banks can I ask a question please?

I do a monthly shop for our local one, until now it's been predominantly tinned foods, pasta, rice and toiletries. Would it be a good idea to do a shop full of stock cubes/pots and spices instead?

I have used a foodbank and would have been very happy to receive stock cubes and spices. They would have been much more useful than a box of Coco Pops that my child wouldn't eat. He was used to living on porridge, soups and so on because we didn't have much money.

I know I've read threads before where people who volunteer at foodbanks have said they need more foods that people can cook in temporary accommodation, but there are other people who just don't have enough money for food who would appreciate things like that.

Food banks don’t want spices and stock cubes at all. They are temporary, for emergencies. You can’t feed your family on a stock cube, it’s a waste of a donation

The success of the schemes to run school meals during the holidays should be funded and extended imo. It makes a massive difference to the children involved.

When I was very young, before being taken by my grandparents at 7, the one summer the school opened for lunch we were actually fed for once. My parents didn't actually care about us eating, my father's particuar favourite method of abuse was starving us, but the temptation to get rid of us for a couple of hours a day meant even we were sent.

It's such a simple idea and could alleviate so many problems. Not just the hunger either.

I can't see why stock cubes and spices are a waste. I think it's a great idea: When you go they tailor your parcel to your needs depending on what they have (allergies/dietary needs). It doesn't always work out but you are grateful for what you get. If I could afford it I'd only buy ethically sourced local meat etc but that ain't gonna happen.

Food banks are to feed people immediately, who in all likelihood haven’t eaten for days already. They are supposed to be filling, fatty and energy dense. They are deigned you provide 3 days food. It doesn’t matter what you think about food banks providing a casserole pack, that’s not what they are there for.

All food banks provide a list of needed items and you will find they all consistently request pasta, rice, tinned goods, tinned puddings, toiletries, cereals etc. Listen to them.

I think things like herbs and stock cubes will really divide opinion and what good banks are trying to do is offer something that can be standardised and given out to everybody. So things like tins of baked beans and tomatoes, tea bags, coffee, hot chocolate, cereal, long life milk. Obviously not everybody will like those things or use them, but most of those items will get used within a household, whether that be a family who are also in temporary accommodation with limited cooking facilities or with fuel poverty also, or a family in isolated food poverty (which is much more unusual as usually food poverty is a symptom of poverty in general not on its own).

Obviously there will be people who are grateful for cooking ingredients, but most will be more grateful for a glass of orange juice and some biscuits when they are really down on their luck than another job to do.

Oh, and something to wash the dishes or their hair with!

I can't imagine making a casserole when I'm wadding my knickers with tissue because I have no sanitary items either. There are reasons they ask for the items they do!

The thing with food poverty is the prospect of eating porridge oats and water is that you're looking at about 150 calories in a portion. Vegetable soup made with a few parsnips and an onion is maybe 300 calories for the entire batch of soup. Frankly soup made with no stock, no herbs, no butter, no wine, no meat is going to be pretty mediocre eating. You're going to have to top both up with far more than the standard portion sizes to make anything like a meal that stops you losing weight. Both are fine for a day, but thinking that people should be eating those every day for years with limited changes is a pretty low bar for what should be a wealthy country.

We have a Lidl directly opposite Tesco in our town and it’s like the Crusty Crab vs The Chum Bucket! A solitary tumbleweed drifts past Tesco as Lidl sells out most days. Visit Lidl at 8pm and it’s like Poland in the 1980’s- bare shelves and empty boxes. The reason is, of course, price. You can fill three bags for the price of one at Tesco. Beyond the statistics of food bank users is a hidden class of “not quite needing the food bank but watching every penny” shoppers who can only afford treats by shopping at the cheaper shops. As I am sure people have said, aside from the time and fuel costs to cook healthily, there is the idea that older kids and teens find the junk food more palatable.

Some people have a picture in their heads of a stereotypical food bank user, that leads them to suggest porridge and bland soup is good enough. They picture a family who "pump/breed" out kids and spend their money on fags and cigs etc.

Because no one would suggest a nurse work a 12 hour shift on their feet, having only had a bowl of vegetable soup and think yeah that'll do em day in and day out.

When that girl said it was like Christmas and when the Nan spoke about her daughter use it I literally teared up. It's like something out of the Victorian times.

But sure let's just tell them to eat soup, stew and gruel. Capitalism wins again.

I don't quite know how to get myself back from watching that, I feel devastated. Normally i get some little judge on of some kind but I can't manage it any more. I'm just devastated to live in a country that thinks it's ok for kids to go hungry not due to lack of resources, but out of ideological choices.

Food banks are not just about providing actual emergency meals, as in my case. A food bank parcel means it saves me a supermarket shop and therefore I can use that money for other essentials, whatever they may be - rent, petrol, clothing etc.

Food bank users are not all "starving" and need an instant fatty meal. Everyone's situation is totally different, as illustrated by mine. You wouldn't think to look at me and my family that we access a FB, because we are discreet and I don't like to expose my kids to it too much, I am protecting them.

@AuntGinny that’s another good point and sanitary protection is one thing I don’t buy mid range actually. I don’t like to buy tampons since not everyone uses them so I play it safe with sanitary towels but the always wings etc all a bit light weight so I buy an old fashioned full pad- they’re always the cheaper option- just because I figure most women will get on with them
Somehow, even if they’re not idea

cornonthecobweb I agree.

In my situation I would have most appreciated foods like stock cubes, spices, a tin of coconut milk, red lentils, rice, oats, long life milk, honey, coffee and hot chocolate powder. I could then buy root vegetables, apples or bananas and bread. That was pretty much my shopping list when we were on benefits when DS was a young child. We were both slim and anaemic but healthier than the children in that first family.

Food banks don’t generally provide long term support though so they’re not supposed to prop up your weekly shopping (in fact, it’s even more of a disgrace if people are regularly using them like this) don’t you need a referral in your area?

Reusable sanitary pads. You can make funky ones yourself with an old T-shirt, old towel and an old fleece. Old Kids T-shirts are great because the patterns are usually cool. Charity shops for fabric if you don't have your own.

Erm no I’m not doing that thanks Bellini

Propping up my weekly shopping? What am I supposed to do then? Without that help I would slip further into debt and my mental health would suffer even more.
I should probably not have joined this thread as people who have never been so rock bottom that they needed a food bank cannot possibly understand at all what it is like, how you came to be there and how hard it is to get out again.

Passthecherrycoke I wasn't regularly using them, it was a few times when I had to pay for other essentials out of the food budget, yes I needed a referral. I had a few £ left, but I knew it wasn't enough to feed us for the week.