Aibu to not know why you wouldn't be able to feed your DC's breakfast?

[Bearlover16]

Daughters school has recently extended the 'paid' breakfast club to 'free' breakfast club due to an increase in the number of children going to school not having had any breakfast.

Are people really that much on the bread line that they cannot buy a loaf of bread or some cheap porridge oats for less than a quid?

I'm not well off by any means and I do donate to food banks when I can. I also ensure my dcs have had breakfast before leaving the house as I was always led to believe it's the most important meal of the day.

[lljkk]

DS often refused breakfast so sometimes the school sent him to the club to see if he'd at least eat something following social cue of others eating.

(Yours truly, neither impoverished or feckless)

[JonSnowsWife]

Bit of a difference between adults choosing not to have breakfast and not giving children anything before school.

queen they have never eaten breakfast. That includes when they were children.

[JonSnowsWife]

Own brand ones cost pennies and I can always find milk in the reduced section...often buy it myself

Where do you get pennies from if you don't get paid and you're miles away from home with no supportive family?

[Tabsicle]

Yes. And I know there will be stories about feckless parents driving and audi and smoking and has an iPhone, but there are far more parents who are dealing with grinding poverty on a regular basis, who may not have money for the electric meter, who may not be able to afford breakfast and dinner, who may be able to afford something pretty unappealing, like wheetabix mushed up with cold water.

[AndInShortIWasAfraid]

I'm mid 20s and my DM never gave us breakfast. She didn't keep food in the house and we would go to school hungry. She wasn't poor and refused to enrol us in breakfast clubs because they weren't free at the time. She hated domestic life and just ignored her three kids as much as possible. Thankfully we were FSM shouldn't have been though so I at least had lunch. Until I met DH I didn't realise breakfast was a thing.

There are, of course, many parents who can't afford breakfast or who don't have the facilities to prepare or store food.

[ApollO88]

We use the breakfast club and after school club as wrap around child care for our DS. The fact that they feed him breakfast is a bonus. Not the reason we send him. He always has a slice of toast with me fore I leave for work super early

[Tabsicle]

But what about a box of cereal? Own brand ones cost pennies and I can always find milk in the reduced section...often buy it myself.

So, OP. Let's play a game. You have £10 to feed yourself and three children for a week. How do you cover three delicious nutritious and available for pennies meals with that? And when you have to skip one of those meals, which do you skip? Because all those pennies add up.

For extra fun, assume you can only afford to use the electricity for a short burst - say - 20 minutes - per day.

[autumnrainandbooks]

I must admit, I never ate breakfast as a child, and it didn't do me any harm.

[hellokittymania]

Yes they're really are, and I remember when I was in high school, during my last year when I was at a local mainstream school, no one was around and often I really struggled so I would get to school without having eaten. I have a disability and was very very behind in maturity and being able to be independent. So I'm glad things like that were available.

[lljkk]

White bread toast with butter (or a similar offering) is what our breakfast club offered. Milk can go off (& DS would refuse cereal, too).

[NapQueen]

Teachers want fed kids. They are easier to teach. Some parents cant and some parents wont feed their kids breakfast. So the free clubs exist so that kids learning isnt being jeopardised by hunger.

[limon]

own brand ones cost pennies and I can always find milk in the reduced section...often buy it myself

Great of you have the transport ornfarento get to a supermarket regularly. Not so great if you don't or you live in a remote place without supermarkets. Where in live there are towns and villages with higjnlevels of poverty, low car ownership, shit public transport and no supermarkets within 6 miles.

[autumnrainandbooks]

Depends what they have eaten.

[HolyShet]

Where I live on Merseyside it has been estimated that there are 60,000 children living in food poverty. These are children whose only proper meal each day is school lunches. Holidays are horrendous for them. Sadly these days you don't even need to be on your absolute uppers to struggle to afford to feed your family properly.

[Butterymuffin]

OP you're asking the question 'how does this happen?', understandably. But the people putting this in place have asked a different question, which is 'what's the most effective way to get as many kids as possible fed breakfast in the morning?' Feeding them for free at school is the answer. It's about fixing the problem first and foremost. Do you see what I'm getting at?

[SirGawain]

It’s not the school’s job to compensate for poor or neglectful parenting.

[Bubblebubblepop]

Well it's not just affording it is it? It's having the food in the house, being up to prepare and serve it. There are many families in your school whose lives are too chaotic to manage that

[Birdsgottafly]

"what about a box of cereal? Own brand ones cost pennies and I can always find milk in the reduced section"

They don't cost pennies, they are just under a pound.

There were times when we all had to go to bed early, to save electricity, to keep the fridge/freezer on.

I used to get up at 6am to go to the early opening Newsagents on a Monday morning to get electricity when my Child benefit had gone in. If you've got one child, that's only £20, so £10-15 would go straight into the metres. Which would leave £5-10 until the Thursday, but that just be for food. Milk money for the school was £2.

My children never went hungry, but they ate really basic, at times.

My youngest wouldn't eat early, but would eat at Breakfast club and it was a big help.

[IncyWincyGrownUp]

Like Worra says, our school offer a breakfast club to help attendance and timekeeping. Hits also free because we’re in an area of massive deprivation. There are a few parents dropping off on their way to work, but most children are coming for free food. There are the odd one or two who come for a second breakfast, having been fed once already at home, but that’s a rarity.

[mintteaandbananabread]

Are people really that much on the bread line that they cannot buy a loaf of bread or some cheap porridge oats for less than a quid?

yes, some are. Then there are those children whose parents choose alcohol, drugs and tobacco before they choose porridge oats.
Both are benefited by a free breakfast club.

[Graphista]

Have you seriously been under a rock? Yes there are people for whom that's needed inc working families. UC has been an unmitigated disaster for many, evictions are up, adults have DIED from starvation due to the benefits cuts, a recent report (I think coroners society) estimates 80 suicides a MONTH are as a direct result of the cuts, hospital admissions due to malnutrition and related conditions are up, gp's are seeing a marked increase in conditions like rickets ffs.

So yea yabvvu

[Mummyoflittledragon]

It’s a different world out there. My friend was collecting up the harvest donations at school and a mother phoned in asking if there was any food going spare. The School quickly got a parcel together for her and got her access to a food bank. Parents trust schools more than people in authority and councils. Children are going hungry. Parents are going hungry to feed their children. It’s a reality.

[mintteaandbananabread]

It’s not the school’s job to compensate for poor or neglectful parenting

No, it isn't, but isn't it nice when they do? Or would you rather hungry children sat in class?

[LadyMonicaBaddingham]

I have worked in a school breakfast club for seven years. Yes, people are in that position for many and varied reasons. That's why breakfast clubs exist. HTH...

[Birdsgottafly]

"It’s not the school’s job to compensate for poor or neglectful parenting"

Actually it is. Schools for a long time have been concerned with "the whole child" and look at the issues that their children have and look to counteract them.

Things changed when "Every child matters" was bought in by Blair's Government. Services were joined up.