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?

Anyone who wants to /needs to know more
Read taken by sue o Callaghan
Have a google
A copy popped up

You’d also get bored eating frozen pizza and chips every day, but conveniently that’s never mentioned

You’d also feel full. How much veg soup do you have to eat to feel full?

If people can read this thread and the many posts explaining how the cycle of poverty is not easily broken with a veg bag and pennies worth of stock, and still not understand it, then I dont know what else to suggest. It tells me people will continue to be ignorant to this and nothing will change. Sad really.

@Dowser

I am so sorry to hear that

Life is unfair sometimes (or actually quite often..)
I hope your DIL and GC are going to be alright in the end.

I've just run my details through a benefits calculator based on my circumstances when I was a single parent. I am genuinely horrified. I knew things were worse now, but my god, how much worse hadn't fully sunk in. I would now be £15 a week worse off than when I claimed. Which doesn't sound huge, BUT I was on benefits almost 30 years ago. My mind is blown.

And the cost of living has gone up how much in that time?

When it comes to soup - some soups are more nutritious than others.

A soup made with water, a stock cube and not a whole lot else - not very nutritious. Not very filling either. Or what we called 'saveloy soup' back in NZ - the water the sav's (red sausages) were boiled in - that Mum would eat so that the kids got the savs. Or there's what my mother ate after they ran out of porridge - nettle soup, made with nettles.

Whereas my Mum's soup, made thick with lentils, veges, and meat. . . you could run an army on that! (With a couple of hefty slices of bread and butter). . .

I wish ppl wouldnt fall for this "deserving/undeserving" poor crap! FFS the real scroungers are big corporations who evade taxes!

Yes love! 👍

Threads like this always stir up the arseholes, for them poor people will never be deserving enough.
I've got 2 kids, I didn't know that after the birth of my second child that my mental health would go downhill so fast the police would be escorting me to A&E when he was 6 months old.
When you struggle for food, you struggle to pay your bills too and most of us are on PAYG meters. Not to mention when your kids have eaten nothing but toast for 3 days you want to see them smile because it's pizza and chips for dinner and it feels like a treat rather than vegetable soup.

I Think it's worse hearing this attitude at Christmas when you know a lot of these posters will go on to buy their kids masses of gift or at least the expensive stuff they want without having to worry about it while you're there hoping and praying for a miracle so your kids have something to open while shitting yourself that your benefits are about to be stopped because you're due another miracle recovery (or ESA assessment as they're legally known.) so Christmas might not happen anyway.

Just have a little empathy for people whose lives didn't work out in anyway how they hoped but who are doing their best to stop it affecting their own childrens futures, my daughter did an interview today for an apprenticeship so she call pull herself out of this trap but she had to do it in boots with a massive hole in the sole that had been glued back together but she did it anyway because we're not sitting idly by in poverty expecting a miracle that's never going to happen.

Let them eat (healthy vegetable, with stock from the cupboard) soup.

Just have a little empathy for people whose lives didn't work out in anyway how they hoped but who are doing their best to stop it affecting their own childrens futures, my daughter did an interview today for an apprenticeship so she call pull herself out of this trap but she had to do it in boots with a massive hole in the sole that had been glued back together but she did it anyway because we're not sitting idly by in poverty expecting a miracle that's never going to happen.

I wish your daughter so much luck. And I hope so much that things are getting better for you.

I think some people enjoy so much privilege it's a bit like fish and water - they don't notice it's all around them.

Good luck to your daughter killjoys!

Some posters are also forgetting that poorer parents have the same issue with children wealthier people have. Fussy eaters! How many threads on here do you see saying the same thing, my child will not eat it and would go hungry. Or I cant get my child to eat veg. Or is it because they're poor they arent granted the same understanding.

That's without getting in to some of the children who have special needs who will only eat beige food. And yes some children would rather starve then eat something they dont like. So why the hell would you pay money that you dont have, on food that might not get eaten. When you can go to iceland and buy an 80p pizza that you know your children will swallow whole and be full up? I'm not saying this is the case of every poor parent, of course it isnt and I've seen some feckless ones through my old job. But if you pull your head out of your arse long enough you will be able to see that it isnt that simple to eat cheap and healthy.

I think people like to put the blame on parents because its unnerving to know it can happen to any of us. See how long you'll be dishing up hearty meals for under a pound after day in and day out of poverty.

Good luck to your daughter

I'd love to spend 50 quid on a proper warm coat for ds. However, that's out if the question. I have to try and get the best I can for 20 or 30 quid and hope it lasts.

Jesus Christ, I don't think I've ever spent £50 on a coat for one of my kids even when I wasn't short of a few bob

Primark and lots of other shops have nice warm kid's coats for way less than £50.

There are adults and children up to their eyeballs in poverty, starving every day. As part of my job I give out food bank vouchers and payments to families to help with gas and electricity on a semi-regular basis. These people NEED these, without them they and their children would be living in a freezing cold house with no electricity, no gas and no food. It's disgusting that in 2019 millions of adults and children are living in homes without these basic essentials. Other posts have explained the poverty trap so there's no point in me going over this again. The ignorance of some people on this thread is staggering. I suppose it's easy to blame the poor when you're living a privileged life.

Thank you all for your good luck wishes I've everything crossed for her escape!

Some of the comments on here are horrible. Make soup/porridge etc. Can you imagine eating porridge made with water every morning and the vegetable soup every night. If you are lucky maybe a slice of bread. Do you really think that is a nutritious diet for a child? Do you think it will fill them up?
Also how much electric or gas does it take to make a decent soup? What if they only have £1 left on the meter till they next get some money. What if they only have a microwave?
I have a friend who has been Ill recently. She is undergoing tests but has no diagnosis as of yet. She can't work. She has been denied the higher rates of disability even though she can't be left alone as she isnt safe. So her partner stays with her. He can't claim carers allowance as they do not qualify so he is on universal credit. They got sanctioned as he missed an appointment due to her collapsing. They were living off 10p noodles for a week. It's a disgrace. (They didn't tell us this till after or else I would have given them food.)

I think it's harsh to judge people by the behaviour of a few feckless individuals. There are always going to be some people who are in poverty because of their own bad choices that we can all point to - but there are many more in that situation because of circumstances beyond their control.

As a family we are, fingers crossed, doing OK financially at the moment - and even I am feeling the pinch when it comes to grocery shopping and have noticed my bills rise.

I'm a competent cook but I'd struggle to feed my family on the low amounts people are suggesting here on home made food. I know that if I ever found myself having to get by and feed my family on benefits that I'd be straight down to the frozen food discount shop on my local high street - because it's the only way I'd get by. No, it wouldn't be that healthy but at least we would eat.

When you take into account everything else, the rising cost of rent, fuel prices and transport costs it's no wonder people are having to turn to food banks.

Some very ignorant comments on here.

Can whoever suggest my children and I just live off watery porridge and soup take a hike?

We're not living in a third world country.

We're living in a country that allows an abusive parent to walk away from their parental responsibilities without any accountability or consequence whatsoever. This is the issue in our case.

We are not poor due to mismanagement of finances, misuse of substances or alcohol, unwillingness or inability to work, or through any fault of my own.

In part due to my difficulties, I am the one of the most resourceful, efficient, capable and resilient people I know - yet we are poor.

We're poor because my children's father does not care whether they eat or not.
He doesn't care whether they have suitable clothing or not.
He doesn't care whether they are homeless or living in squalor or not.
He doesn't care whether they have heating or not.
He doesn't care if they have new toys, entertainment, go to after school clubs or participate in any activities to enrich their lives.
He doesn't care that continuing to make our lives living hell that we are struggling to get by.

My children's father chooses not to pay even a penny of maintenance and it cannot be enforced due to the ludicrous loopholes in the child maintenance system.

I cannot provide alone what I would like to provide. Because of the abuse I have endured, and continue to endure, my mental health has suffered as a result. However I do everything possible to ensure that in fact my children do not starve (which includes getting referrals for food banks), while their father sits his arse on a luxurious sofa in a warm home, with an ice cold beverage watching an expensive tv, with an overpriced car on the driveway.

Watery porridge is fine if that's your choice. And I hate to think that some people think that's where I'm going wrong, but my children deserve better.

Watery porridge isn't even nutritious. It's slow burning energy and high fibre but it doesn't have any vitamins in it. Fantastic as part of a balance diet. We have it with milk, banana and peanut butter. But if this is your only source of nutrition for an extended period of time it won't be long before your kids are needing treatment for scurvy or rickets.

I think it also causes a deficiency in empathy.

cornonthecobweb

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

Thank you honeybee
These are sadly not my grandchildren
I only wish they were
There’s no way she would be in this situation.

As for people expecting children to thrive on watery porridge or watery soup...it’s just not on

It really isn’t and it’s heartbreaking that people don’t have enough money to feed their children good quality nutritious food

My mum and family were raised poor during the depression..when the money ran out on a Friday it was onion gravy . Mum was never able to eat a cooked onion for the rest of her life...she could never bear the slimy ness.
I cried when she told me her grandmother asked what she would like for Christmas.
A pair of wellington boots as her shoes had holes
That’s what she got...all she got.
Merry Christmas.

My family did ok ..all of them ..but food was always at the centre of things.
My son and family are scraping by as they’ve hit a bad spot...but they’ll never starve..I’ll make sure of that.

My heart goes out to anyone struggling..it’s a cruel, harsh world out there. Especially for those couldn’t give a toss fathers.

..and some judges need to get their heads out of their arses,

The purpose of a pantry of basic essentials is that you AREN'T buying them when you're down to your last £2. If you are on benefits, then you get down to your last two pounds within minutes of receiving your money. You can’t tell children that they won’t be eating for a week because mummy has to stock up her pantry!

I'd love to spend 50 quid on a proper warm coat for ds. However, that's out if the question. I have to try and get the best I can for 20 or 30 quid and hope it lasts. I got my DS a winter coat for £10 from Sports Direct, it's not waterproof but it's warm and does the job. Should fit him at least this winter and next.

Where do they get £30 to £40 a week to feed a child from? Seems a bit high to me.