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?

Maybe it would be helpful if food banks also did a paid for option. Like the Gousto boxes. So you can get manageable amounts of staples and benefit from the cheaper prices from bulk buying.

Are slow cookers economical to run, electricity wise, once purchased? I wonder if you could donate those (new) to a food bank.

Why did parenting suddenly get so much worse in 2010?

Good question.

The book "around about a pound a week" is still a powerful explanation as to why people who are on a knife edge financially might not make choices that seem "obvious" to comfortably off people.

Nothing can warm the cockles of a cold heart like the sight of kids eating gruel

Humbug!

I even know of a boy who wanted MORE!!!

I lived in a very deprived area for a year as a student. It was at the top of a big hill. The supermarket was at the bottom. The bus was very expensive. I was just about able to haul up bags of veg as I was just cooking for myself. But I could perfectly well see from that experience why many people in the area resorted to supernoodles from the corner shop or a takeaway. It took ridiculous determination and fitness to live healthily on a budget, even as a single person.

Maybe it would be helpful if food banks also did a paid for option. Like the Gousto boxes.

That's a brilliant idea, but it's more suited to your "community fridge" if there is one near you, rather than a food bank.

I want to know where people living in poverty are supposed to get a pantry of essentials from. What does this pantry consist of?

I've volunteered with families who are destitute (yes, that's a thing in the UK now). There are always exceptions, but the vast majority are not the feckless idiots annie is going on about. Most either have one or more disabled people in the family, and/ or have escaped abuse.

Maybe we should ask Women's Aid to remind women leaving violent husbands to pack up their pantry essentials when they leave?

Question for those who blame poor parenting etc

Why did parenting suddenly get so much worse in 2010?

It didn’t, however, the number of food banks available has been steadily increasing since then, so the increase in use could be as a result of the increase of availability.

My DD was born in the 80s, for complicated reasons I won’t go into, I had no money for good for several months. There were no food banks then, or none that I knew of. I’d certainly have used one had they been available, and I’m sure there were many more like me.

It's easy for people to sit there and say "make better meals using pasta etc" but it never is that simple for some families. And frankly yes there are rubbish parents out there spending money on fags/booze etc but the children are still hungry. I dont like to watch children suffer because of adult mistakes and it seems that people lose all empathy for hungry children, which is wrong.

The things is, it’s so easy to stand back, from a life time of sensibility and experience and suggest how very easy it is to do xyz.

I’m educated, and relatively “rich”. Yet I don’t have Rainy day funds, if I was sacked tomorrow I would last about a month. I have no idea what benefits I would be entitled to but I can assume they won’t cover my mortgage, loan and credit card repayments, credit agreements such as phone and gym, all the insurances which cover me, and food, clothes and consumables for me and my children.

Isn’t it easy to say, well you’re stupid.

• You should’ve saved (people forget there are many times savings are spent- and that savings only keep you away from the wolves for another few months, not forever)

• you shouldn’t have entered into credit agreements (even those they were needed at the time and easily affordable, and you can’t easily get out of them)

but how does that help anyone? You can’t turn back time 5 years and make different decisions. You can’t live as though you’re in poverty when you’re not, just in case.

It’s easy for you to say- I am great at living on no money and everyone else is shit. And maybe you’re right. But you are also showing an emotional immaturity and a huge naivety. Both of these things mean you might have complaints or platitudes, but you don’t have any answers or helpful advice.

And therein lies why people get annoyed with you.

It didn’t, however, the number of food banks available has been steadily increasing since then, so the increase in use could be as a result of the increase of availability.

Jesus, do you call a ten fold increase in the number of food banks a steady increase?

Food banks open because there is a need, not because someone might fancy using them if they're there.

My point is , it is not the fault of the UK. Direct your frustration at the families. I am being abused on here but no one is telling or dealing with the parents who are drug users alcoholics etc. Yes i too was once a child with no food, my mother was hospitalised with malnutrition. I have been in care and homeless so to the wonderful readers of this thread who just wish to berate me, you are wrong. However it is great to have other people write passionately on the subject which may stay with you for a while now that you have been angered.

Yes i too was once a child with no food, my mother was hospitalised with malnutrition.

Your mum was a drug user and an alcoholic was she? Or are you saving your nasty judgments for everyone else's families.

You're not being abused on here. Do not cry victim. You said in your Op that you were going to be shot down. People are genuinely (I think) asking you questions about why you said what you said.

“no one is telling or dealing with the parents who are drug users alcoholics etc”

Why do you think they’re not being supported or dealt with? That’s not related to their use of food banks is it?

I’ve asked 3 times, can you explain what you would do to these addicted, learning disabled or feckless parents so they can get their act together and start serving their children porridge and water and buy some paprika?

I haven't seen it, I suspect I'd struggle.

I read the autobiographical novels by Helen Forrester as a teenager, and they really gave me such an insight into what this sort of poverty is like. She had feckless parents who spent all their money on tobacco, but their children suffered dreadfully under a system which refused to help, and championed the idea of deserving or undeserving poor. I'm in my forties now and I see kids in my DDs primary school clearly in a very similar situation, and it's utterly shocking.

If your mother was those things @anniemac1 then surely you, of all people should have compassion for the families. Yes, it's feckless, yes it irresponsible but the children didn't choose that life.
You sound completely heartless to be honest.

People will get their back up when you say pretty much every child hungry is because their parents are feckless drink/drug users or like big flashy tvs.

You have people with learning disabilities, children of these so called feckless grown ups who werent taught how to adult. Women who run from DV situations.

And quite honestly some advice on here has been so out of touch its unreal (fucking pantrys ) so if that's the advice that's given to the poor, then maybe thats a reason it's not getting through to them. Not because they are all shit. 11

Porridge made with water is a cheap and filling breakfast.

^^

Not if you're diabetic. Not splitting feathers with you, but that doesn't work for everyone

Ignore the random 11. And there were paragraphs!

Limp,

I read Helen Forrestor too, loved her books. They couldn't get assistance because they were from a different county! Cheshire rather than Merseyside!

And frankly yes there are rubbish parents out there spending money on fags/booze etc but the children are still hungry.

^

This. Don't punish the kids because the parents are feckless.

Just a couple of points to those on this thread who think the poor have somehow brought this on themselves:

Myth #1: people can't cook wholesome meals properly.
Many people using Foodbanks are housed in temporary accommodation which doesn't have decent cooking facilities. It's very difficult to cook well-balanced meals using only a kettle. Also, for those who do have cooking facilities, these cost money. Gas and electric are vastly more expensive now than they used to be.

Myth #2: poor people have blown their money on luxuries.
Do you honestly think that the majority of users would rather have a new luxury phone than see their children fed? Do you really think people are that evil? It is true that many people have some kind of mobile and/or computer, but that is because life nowadays demands it - do you know how hard it is to claim for benefits and apply for jobs without these things? You can't expect people to have 1950s standards of living but get jobs and pay bills in today's society. Life doesn't work like that.

Myth #3: people are complacent and rely on foodbanks
The majority of foodbanks are there to help people in crisis - they are temporary, and users can only visit a certain number of times before they are referred on to other service providers. And people can't just rock up - they're referred by an agency such as a GP, school, social services etc. There are checks in place.
Visiting a food bank can be humiliating and painful. For many people it feels like they have failed. It is not something anyone does through choice.

Myth #4: the poor have brought this on themselves.
This is a Victorian attitude and society is supposed to have moved on from this. The standard of living has increased so much that people don't have the savings they once had. If you're self employed as a brickie and you break your leg, what do you do? It takes weeks for benefits to kick in. Your parents are dead and you have no family. Who can help you? This is what food banks are for.

Myth #5: these people aren't really hungry. They're not about to die like the people in areas of famine.
No, they're probably not - they probably do have access to clean water, for example. But they are starving. In a supposedly developed country. Isn't that shameful? People are dying from neglect and lack of food in the same town where people shop in Waitrose and go on luxury holidays. Isn't that terrible? Shouldn't everyone have enough to eat, at least? Why is this a race to the bottom?

Society is becoming increasingly stacked against the poor. If you have a good home and heating and food on the table it is because you are lucky. Yes, you may have worked hard for it and foregone luxuries, but many of the people using Foodbanks have also worked hard and forgone luxuries. Life is not fair.

Some of the responses on this thread make me despair. This "it wasn't like that in my day" philosophy is why we're in the mess we're in politically and socially. There are real people living right now in terrible, terrible conditions. Please, stop harping back to some fictitious golden age and open your eyes to what is happening now.

@IJustWantToWearDungarees
Spot on.

I’ve named changed as I’ll get slaughtered. Just watched a little over two minutes of this and the children in it were overweight? And saying the families didn’t have anything to eat. I grew up In the early 80’s we DIDN’T have enough to eat and we were skinny bloody skinny.