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?

@Lovesgood I have already contacted my local MP. It is a huge battle and I'm only at the early stages. Don't know if I have the energy to keep fighting though - when I have time the priorities. It's easier to campaign once you have some security behind you. I really don't right now.

It is shocking how many people are struggling now, especially when there is so much wealth around. I know its easy for people to say don't have kids if you can't afford them but many people have a lack of education and don't always know how to handle responsibility and the cycle goes on and on. Also junk food is generally cheaper which is why poorer children can be overweight. The cost of living has gone up but wages have not. It is a vicous circle for many people and its hard to get out of. When you are comfortable in life, it is easy to judge but it just takes a few unlucky changes of circumstances and any of us could be in a bad situation.

The underprivileged kids at DS school are mostly fat. Have all the latest gadgets. Sometimes priorities are skewed.

Why not make it easier to get a mortgage ?

The did, then 2008 happened.

If I was down to my last £2 I would buy a few parsnips and an onion and make soup. I wouldn't buy cheap noodles. Soup goes further and has more nutritional value. This is what I mean about cooking properly.

A few parsnips and an onion don't provide the basic calories needed to function or even grow, though.

There were food banks long before 2010. Labour don’t want to remind you of that though.

Housing is only expensive in the south.
Move north and you can easily get a 3 bed for £60k.

Yes, there are plenty jobs up here btw. Hundreds listed every day on job sites.

You don't get overweight on no food.

You can get overweight on a shit ton of cheap, crap food, though.

Umm... I always make porridge just with water - the oats make it really creamy.... I didn’t realise other people didn’t.

@Focyt

Yes there were but there are far far more now and far more people using them.

Parcels handed out by year at Foodbanks

2008-09: 26,000
2009-10: 41,000
2010-11: 61,468
2011-12: 128,697

Then to 1.2m parcels handed out in 2016/17. That is a horribly concerning rise.

I watched this tonight and I’m torn. I was a single mum back in the 90’s and yes proportionally it seems benefits were more then. My kids never went hungry and we didn’t have food banks. But I can see it’s harder now.

However, this thing about not being able to cook. My son has ASD and moved to Asia earlier this year. He did cook for himself before he left but mostly things you could bung in the oven and tinned veg. He now has no oven where he lives and they don’t do tinned veg. So he’s learnt how to make his own versions of what he likes using YouTube videos. For example, ready made burgers are expensive there but mince is cheap so he googled how to make his own burgers and did it himself. He now prepares his own veg rather than relying on tins. There is a wealth of info out there on cooking on a budget such as the “cooking on a bootstrap” website. Things that weren’t around in the 90s when I was a single mum. I kinda think that if my ASD son can do it, anyone can. So I struggle with the excuse of “don’t know how to cook”.

And the woman who wanted to be a journalist. All very well but her family needs money now. GCSEs + access course + uni is 5 years minimum. And there isn’t huge demand for journalists in Cornwall! I think she needed to be a bit more realistic. And the woman who was a cater for her mum. Ok pension isn’t great but the mum had a husband, 2 x the state pension (165 per week x2) is a helluva a lot more than her daughter will be getting. Why wasn’t she at least paying her daughters fuel money that she used to care for her?

Maybe what we actually need is a group of “family workers” who can go into a household, steer them in the right direction, targeting issues such as cooking skills, employment etc and then move on to the next family. Yes it won’t work in all scenarios but I think it would help a lot.

So I struggle with the excuse of “don’t know how to cook”

But who uses that excuse?! Do people go to food banks and hand over their voucher saying apologetically “sorry, I need to use the food bank because I don’t know how to cook”?!

I mean why are we even discussing cooking?

kinda think that if my ASD son can do it, anyone can.

Your asd son can. My asd kids couldn't even make that move and one of them is so rigid with what he'd eat that he would starve.

PickAChew

I don’t know how old your DC are but I would have said the same about my DS at 14/15. But they can get a lot better.

And cherry coke, many people on this thread have said about people not knowing “how” to cook. The programme itself showed a mum going to cooking classes. So it is relevant.

It baffles me how people still dont realise how easy it is to fall in to poverty.

I know a lovely family who this has happened to. In their early 30s with 2 young dc. They were not married, but had been together 14 years. Both worked, her days him nights. Rented house, shared 1 car. Never used childcare as the managed to juggle it between them, were generally very careful with their money and had to budget but lived within their means.

Then one day he didn't wake up. He passed from SADS. That was one income lost. They didn't have much in the way of savings so she had to put part of the funeral on a credit card. No family to /able to help.
Because they were not married and because she worked and they collectively had earned over a certain amount, she could not claim any type of help at that point.

She returned to work, as their policy only allows x amount of time off with pay. Now she also had to pay for childcare. She applied for benefits. In the meantime her car broke down, £250 to fix it. She needs the car as she couldnt drop the kids off and get to work on time without it. She uses the cc again.
Dcs struggle with losing their dad, she gets called out of work to the school alot, gets issued a warning about her attendance. she has a breakdown and gets signed off work. Now on SSP. Goes back to work as cant afford to live off ssp, she then starts to receive a small amount of benefts. Then her eldest dc tried to kill himself. More time off work. Only allowed x amount of paid time off. She tries to change her hours at work but they cant accommodate what she needs. She has to take.more time off/phone in sick ro deal with her dcs. Has another break down ends up on ssp again. Benefits stop and start. She falls behind on her cc payments and her rent. Car fails its mot. She cant fix it. Looks for new job closer to home with different hours but cant find anything in her area, with no car its difficult to travel and juggle the kids. No savings to move. Loses her job eventually. And this is how it spirals. Kids need new uniforms. The washing machine breaks. You eventually use up all the bits in your store cupboard.

Everyones story is different. I could tell you 100 different versions because not everything is black and white. Yes some times it is down to poor life choices and bad money management. Some times its down to sheer shit luck and circumstance. Its easy to say get another job, sell the car, move house. Its not that easy in reality. Dont judge others because it is so easy to fall into the poverty pot, it really could end up being you one day.

Well Autism is a massive spectrum Meruem you can't assume that because your son can learn to cook all people with autism can my son for example also be severe learning disabilities and if he does learn to cook will always need supervision but even so even without learning disabilities autism is very complex .

Regarding food and cheap.food though I think a lot of it depends on where you live ,I live in deprived area wages are low and I expect many people depend on benefits but I live in a council estate on the edge of a large town you can walk into the town centre ,we have a a large market selling good quality meat and fruit and veg for cheap prices ,and aldi,lidl,Sainsbury's and Morrisons are all walkable distances with asda and ice land only being short car distance but if you are a poor without these I can imagine for shopping is much more expensive.

Move north

How do you propose a family does that with no money. You're not going to fucking walk from London to Newcastle.

ahhh yes theres no poverty 'up north'

Complete idiocy on here

“And cherry coke, many people on this thread have said about people not knowing “how” to cook. The programme itself showed a mum going to cooking classes. So it is relevant.”

I don’t know what you mean about “many people on this thread have said about people not knowing how to cook” my whole point is it’s bullshit. People go to food banks because they HAVE NO FOOD.

Why was she going to cooking classes? How was she going to cook with no food?

Food banks have been around for decades, they just didn't have a formal name, or a national register. I grew up during the 60s/70s in a small market town in the north of England, there were at least 3 churches I knew of that collected tinned/dried/packet foods, secondhand clothes/toys etc. and distributed those donations to needy families. In those days the need was almost always created by a feckless father, one who'd either abandoned the family or spent all the money on booze/fags.

I think people forget that 'those' people are people too. When I had to get a food bank parcel I didn't suddenly get kids who liked eating new things, I didn't start liking the taste of value coffee (or suddenly get a surge of energy that meant I no longer needed my morning mug). We didn't stop being allergic to cheap washing powder. They didn't like the taste of UHT milk. The baby didn't switch formula brands (and if he had he'd have still got bad guys from the change). My kids didn't start not being allergic to

Sorry posted to soon.

They didn't stop being allergic to certain baby wipes. My eldest did not start liking baked beans. I did not inherit a massive freezer or a slow cooker or a whole heap of Tupperware. And most of all, I did not get any more time or energy I just had an unexpected bill on a bad month, and the only extra energy I could find was that which got me the damned parcel, walking there, swallowing my pride, carrying heavy bags and trying to convince my kids to try things they didn't want to, knowing that the electricity could go off at any minute. That's the reality. We didn't just miraculously become different people, we just went through a hard patch financially

I think the mum was going because A it was free meal that day and B it was a free afternoon of activities for kids in the long holidays. Yes I’m sure some people may have zero cooking skills but we could all do with no ideas now again. Why else are all cooking shows so popular?

Really sad people can’t see how it could possible happen to them and lack of understanding

I also think when you do your weekly shop it's not just food you are buying, it's all the toiletries too.
We are a family of 5 and some weeks it's the toiletries that really add to the shopping.
Washing machine detergent, toothpaste, washing up liquid, tampax, deodorant, sponges for washing up, bulbs. So many non food things on your shopping that all add up.
If in poverty you don't stop needing to wash, have a period, need to do the dishes.
Our country is on its knees while the very rich get richer.
Reading this thread has made me appreciate I have a home, I have gas/electricity and my children have food and warm clothes.
I really hope we can turn things around.
Make housing more affordable.
Childcare more affordable.
Better breaks for working families.