To ask why there is such food poverty.

[Helendee]

Please no flaming as I genuinely am seeking answers as to why so many children are going to school hungry these days.
This is not a critical or inflammatory post, I just want to know what’s gone wrong.
Obviously many of us are struggling financially because of Covid but food poverty was a huge problem before that.
Is it that benefit levels are too low to adequately feed our children?
What can we do to ameliorate the situation?

@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander

Isn't it odd how people on here always know someone who's better off not working. When in reality it just isn't true. I've been a sahm to preschoolers with a partner on a low income and top up benefits. I've been a single parent to preschoolers on benefits. I've worked part time and claimed tc. I've worked full time and claimed tc. I've been 1 of a 2 adult house, both working full time. Now I'm a single parent on uc.

I've always had more money working. And the more hours I've worked the better off I've been. Every. Single. Time.

You probably do/ did get a lot more money then a single childless adult even if working 60+ hours, tbh.

Parents are expected to supervise their children more now as well. My parents were expected to look after their younger siblings from a young age. If I did that I would be reported to social services.

@linelgreen

However I walk past our local foodbank daily on way from car park to the office and the queue outside consists of people who are smoking and chatting in their phones, Surely they should prioritise feeding family over those non essentials,

How are future employers going to contact them? Semaphore?

@SonjaMorgan I know the quote you mean but I once got into a disagreement here about how that particular quotation is too simplistic and that if you wanted to be awkward (as I was) it was easy to "rip" the sentiment apart.

I still believe that. Excellent concept just missing a teeny bit of detail that would have nailed it. Especially when that section is quoted without the context of the rest of the story!

It's no doubt true what fruitsaladjelly says, and it would be unacceptable for kids to go to school in grubby clothes today, or with toes cut out of the shoes. If you always have a strip wash, your finger nails might be grubby. These features which would indicate neglect today, were accepted in many communities, and everyone was the same, so more income could go on food, rather than washing powder, hot water, new toothbrushes and hair brushes: things which indicate a decent standard of living today.

I've seen Shall I call 999 type threads.
One issue is that some people can't afford to get to hospital or a walk-in centre. They don't know what to do. They (or their child) are not well enough for a long bus journey but it's not an ambulance situation. There's no money for s cab.

Similar situation. Someone's phone has run out of credit. What happens if they have a mental health crisis and they can't now call their doctor.

People have no money for emergencies. To access medical help.

@witchesglove yes I no doubt did but thats not comparing like for like so is irrelevant
If i was a single adult i could live in a shared house. I could work eleventybillion hours and not worry about childcare. I could live on tinned soup and supernoodles.

As it is I need a house/flat big enough for 3 people, when I was working needed to spend at least a few hours per week with my dc and need to provide a decent balanced diet. All of that costs more than a room in a shared house and some soup.

@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander

As for what can we do? I dont know. Removing the benefit cap would be a start. I don't know who how we tackle the lack of education re food though. My dc are lucky in the sense that I can cook, they've never had much by way of processed, pre made meals. But i know people who wouldn't have a clue. There's no funding for any kind of community classes, and if there were the people who need them probably won't want to attend.

Regarding the general lack of knowledge re cooking skills, there has never been more readily available, free/low cost information; YouTube, BBC recipes, Instagram, charity shops rammed full of cook books etc.

I agree with @scubadive that if more benefits are given it will increase the debt burden on the next generation. They will be the ones who will have to pay off the Covid bill. I just wish they would dump the HS2 project that is apparently already £1 billion over the budget.

I really don’t know either. It is probably a combination of things.

I can see how waiting for Universal Credit could plunge someone temporarily into poverty.

Chronic food shortage is more worrying. I imagine chaotic lives is part of that, and so food banks and the like are not going to help much in the long term. There has been a huge cultural change, and we are surrounded by images on instagram of money, and everyone needs a phone.

It is now no longer OK to wear really poor clothes - people will vilify a child and parent for looking poor but not look behind the door to see if they have pots and pans, or are cooking meals.

My family were very poor for a while, single parent household. For a few years I never had any new clothes, I only had ones from jumble sales. We had one chicken cooked on Sunday which lasted half the week for me and my siblings and mother. Then we had packet soup, or tinned ravioli - one of those would be our main dinner. We didn’t have a car and rented a flat. Weirdly enough, in relative terms, food was more expensive then and meat more of a luxury. It wasn’t chaotic but it would be easy to start drinking for example with this chronic stress around.

@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander
Tinned soup and super noodles? Do single adults not deserve to be healthy?
It's not all young people. It's older divorced or separated people, domestic abuse survivors, ill and disabled people. They deserve the dignity of their own home once they get beyond a certain age.

@grassisjeweled

Start by making childcare free, subsided from birth, which includes home cooked, free meals.

Like progressive societies do I. E. Norway.

This would make a massive difference to so many people.

By free, do you mean funded by tax payers? I'm not against that in principle but I haven't seen any costings. What other services would need to be cut / which taxes would have to rise to fund this?

There are lots and lots of families who fall on hard times, women who leave abusive situations , etc. They of course need help and support. However there are also families who have children when they can’t afford them, yet expect the state to pick up the tab. Or families who prioritise having a big TV or going down the pub over feeding their children properly. In earlier times people had kids because there was no contraception. Families were huge and conditions were often appalling. No free healthcare and a lot more diseases which had no cure.
These days no one should be having large families or any children at all if they can’t afford to feed and clothe them properly. Obviously circumstances can change through no fault of the parents, but many parents don’t take their responsibilities seriously enough. Men in particular often don’t pay maintenance , or enough maintenance , and women still have the brunt of the caring and responsibility.

[quote SheepandCow]@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander
Tinned soup and super noodles? Do single adults not deserve to be healthy?
It's not all young people. It's older divorced or separated people, domestic abuse survivors, ill and disabled people. They deserve the dignity of their own home once they get beyond a certain age.[/quote]
Oh i totally agree. And I'm not saying they should eat tinned soup and super noodles although I do love super noodles. But if u was skint and a single adult I could live on that if I had to. It's just not possible with dc.

@caringcarer

I agree with *@scubadive* that if more benefits are given it will increase the debt burden on the next generation. They will be the ones who will have to pay off the Covid bill. I just wish they would dump the HS2 project that is apparently already £1 billion over the budget.

Billions on HS2 - to shave just 20 minutes off a journey! Apparently it will be obselete technology too by the time it's completed.

@BasinHaircut

One of the long term things we should be doing is teaching practical cookery at school. Basic knife skills, learning how to make basic sauces and dishes, learning basic nutrition and how to shop economically etc.

This and teaching the ability to critically appraise information and not believe everything you read —on social media— are two things I am very passionate about being added to our curriculum.

Basic skills that everyone needs.

Couldn't agree more!

@Diverseopinions

It's no doubt true what fruitsaladjelly says, and it would be unacceptable for kids to go to school in grubby clothes today, or with toes cut out of the shoes. If you always have a strip wash, your finger nails might be grubby. These features which would indicate neglect today, were accepted in many communities, and everyone was the same, so more income could go on food, rather than washing powder, hot water, new toothbrushes and hair brushes: things which indicate a decent standard of living today.

Lol ! yeah they got Ricketts instead.

Who'd have guessed washing powder and a hair/tooth brush indicate a decent standard of living!

Is the Uk now a developing nation?

I would like to see a basic ‘wage’ paid to every member of our society instead of benefits (maybe some extra for disabilities etc) and I don’t mind paying some higher taxes to do it.

Aside from that, I think we have to start with children. There are critical points in people’s lives where putting in extra support makes a huge difference. When people decide to work or not. When people decide to choose a partner / have children. Early years of a child’s life. Early teenage hood.

@sheepandcow I believe that disabled people receive higher benefits than the one I used in my example and your £74 is not accurate. Try running the benefits calculator and look at the overall benefits a disabled person would receive. It really isnt a terrible situation.

The point you make about someone having to pay £20 a week extra on rent as they have higher housing costs is a good one but I think even then it could be absorbed into the overall benefits received without too much impact.

If wages are low and housing costs are high for some people they do have a choice - they can move somewhere cheaper. I moved 200 miles to get a better job, someone who is reliant on state handouts could examine how to make that money stretch further and move somewhere else with cheaper costs. Lots of people move to improve their lives - its not unreasonable to expect people to look into it.

Ive worked nightshift in a warehouse, ive stacked shelves in supermarkets, collected glasses in pubs, cleaned toilets and got my hands dirty and ive lived on £5 a week for food before so I know life can be hard. There are a lot of jobs out there, minimum wage isnt that bad.

I am extremely familiar with the situation that disabled parents have to deal with, thanks.

To be fair I love super noodles too @TheFormerPorpentinaScamander
I understand what you're saying. Sorry for jumping on you. It's because the plight of the disabled is one of my big passions.

@scubadive

I think benefits are enough to cover children’s food. I’ve known friends be much better off on benefits than working and if they work part time then definitely not worth them working full time as they would then lose benefits. I know there are issues with the new UC but there is still enough for basic food.

I think things are getting crazy with how much the government is having to pay out with Covid and everything else. It’s our children who will be burdened with repaying all this debt during their lifetimes and yet people are constantly demanding the govt pay out more and more.

The future looks bleak for the next generation.

I think the government should prioritise feeding British children over giving multi-million pound contracts to dormant companies with no trading history to produce sanitizer or PPE that either doesn't work or doesn't exist. They've spent £4 billion they can't account for.

I'm happy to pay more tax to feed children. Not to line covid-profiteering pockets.

It's Garden Bridge corruption on steroids.

I am unsure if it could be said it is a money thing, if each person in poverty was handed 200 pounds a week for food would they suddenly go out and buy organic grain fed meat, 20 different fruit and vegetables, pulses/grains etc. (Or whatever healthy food people are told to get)?

Sure not all people would spend it on ready meals and takeaway but how much is poverty and how much lifestyle and lack of knowledge?

@SheepandCow

To be fair I love super noodles too *@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander* I understand what you're saying. Sorry for jumping on you. It's because the plight of the disabled is one of my big passions.

No need to apologise. I was posting purely from my own perspective, and we'll be honest that I'm woefully uneducated on disability benefits. Although I'm supposedly too 'disabled' to work, but still waiting to hear back about any extra benefits I might be entitled to. Not holding out much hope that I'll get them.