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?

I think it is a pretty poor show that in the 21st Century ,many Families are going hungry . I read somewhere recently that the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer!Something is wrong somewhere for sure .Marcus Rashford is an inspirational young man, and one can only hope he gets his free School meals during the holidays put through .However it shouldnt be up to Footballers to feed hungry kids!Many people struggle with their money ,and mostly there just isnt enough of the folding stuff to go round!A mixture of low wages ,expensive rents and utilities as well .Gas Cards are much more expensive than Direct Debits for example .Lots of people have a mobile phone for themselves and their DC .These are needed and an essential item in my mind .Supermarket shops are always cheaper than local shops ,but are out of reach for many people without a car or anyone to take them!

Lots of people have a mobile phone for themselves and their DC .These are needed and an essential item in my mind
How can this be more important than food?

My neighbour says she is struggling but then went and bought a 2nd car. She says to take the kids to school but both schools are only 15mns walk, theres a bus stop just outside our house! She doesn't work so got time, but she just wants the freedom that comes with the car!

Fine, but that is a,luxury, not a need and can't cry that she can't feed the kids when this takes precedence.

The problem is so many people make poorly thought through choices then expect others to pick up after them. @Marmitecrackers.

What was the back story that lead to your oh so successful and measured life?
Good nutrition, good role models, good home, friends a calm and sensible upbringing. All your neuro transmitters firing up nicely? Then you encountered your partner....a similar background?

People do not all exist in this Enid Blyton world and the things that gave them a leg up have been dismantled.

However the routes to a higher salary are not always easy

There was a time last year when I was working full time, at uni part-time, had a 3 year old and was pregnant...I was exhausted, and I have a supportive DH, local grandparents, and could afford to go down to part-time when it all got a bit too much (I had hyperemesis)...sadly I think things that are 'difficult' when you are already privileged, can be nearly impossible when you are not.

@dontdisturbmenow, not walking 15 minutes is pathetic.
I will take my vile contradictory mood elsewhere for now.

@XingMing

To survive on benefits or a low wage you need to be able to budget and many people can’t do this.

That is surely a failure on the part of the teachers instructing students in maths. I was a citizenship teacher in the days schools had them, and while we used holidays and houses as budgeting exercises for teaching purposes ( more enthralling than feeding the family each week) we explained everything mathematically and in health terms. It was a shrivelled approximation of the lost Home Economics O level. I think that should be brought back, at O level standard, and taught to every single student in year 9.

I have found recently that Citizenship as described is alternated with RE and seen as optional. It's a shame. I didn't do well in my GCSEs so did a CPVE (remember those?) and one of the modules included balancing a chequebook. All those that did A' levels did not get the same education at that point.

Some pretty smart kids out of there with not much useful skills in my generation. Being hard up and not having knowledge can happen to anyone.

Unless you have a physical disability most people should be able to walk up to 3 miles to a supermarket (and carry shopping back in a shopping trolley, or rucksack or under your child's pram or pushchair). I know if you're very rural you may be further than that, but a lot of people are within that distance.

I live in Greater London. Lots of people using foodbanks in our area. Yet practically everyone has a car, many families have more than one.

I'm not including those who have motability vehicles as I know for them the costs are different, but for everyone else, keeping a basic car on the road is an absolute minimum of £400+ a year and that's before you've put any fuel in it. In our area a car is a necessity for very few people, most people work locally and could walk or cycle there (or use cheap public transport). No one round here is more than 2 miles from a supermarket. But people think they have to have a car, there's an expectation that they will irrespective of income.

I didn't have a car for many years, carried my shopping the 2 miles home or (at times when I had a weekly or monthly bus pass for work) got the bus. A former neighbour who was unemployed at that time and on benefits (and whose exH had taken their car when they split) used to get a taxi there and back, despite the bus going virtually door to door because she didn't like buses and wasn't willing to walk that far. So weekly that would be £10+ on taxis rather than £3 return on the bus. Or free if she'd walked both ways.

randomer no we’re down south, but thank you for that , I will have a look and a read online x

Not everyone on minimum wage is disabled/ a disabled persons carer! What an insulating suggestion.

No but the majority of people with disabilities or with a disabled child are on benefits.

I was talking about before people have children- why can they only ever earn min wage?

They should wait until they have a reasonable wage before having kids- or not have them.

It doesn't matter what your wage is (assuming a normal wage not millions from a trust fund) a disability or a disabled child can throw you into poverty quicker than you can imagine.

@Marmitecrackers

Out of curiosity, when you did your degrees, were they still free? Did you have access to student bursaries etc? How much student loan debt did you have? Can you see how current student situations are extraordinarily different now?

There's certainly some Samatha Brick level conceitedness on this thread explaining how to do well in life.

At least the dim fella pushing the trollies and scraping by gets a pardon.

Unless you have a physical disability most people should be able to walk up to 3 miles to a supermarket (and carry shopping back in a shopping trolley, or rucksack or under your child's pram or pushchair) what absolute rubbish. Have you walked home a weekly food shop for a family of 4, 3 miles? Also plenty of people aren’t disabled but it’s beneficial for them to use a car: eg. Pregnant, working unsociable hours, little children, Sen children. God I hate today’s judgement culture, see a snap shot of someone’s day and make a whole story about them and dictate changes. Well done daily mail

Walking 3 miles with a food shop, lmao! Next joke. FFS. It seems like a lot of community has gone, here there used to be a free bus to the supermarket once a week, I'm pretty sure you had to apply for a seat, but it was really handy for people; and often if a taxi driver had a booked job that swung past he would do a deal if you jumped in on the way back. None of that seems to exist now, and there's a taboo in offering it seems.

I don't by any stretch of the imagination believe that this is true of all people on benefits, however I volunteer at a local food bank. I know personally a great many of the people who come through the doors and they all smoke, take drugs and drink! They see the food bank as a free way to feed the kids therefore freeing up the benefits for their fun/habits! These are not hardworking people who have fallen on hard times, infact many generations of the same families who don't even see work as an option worth bothering with! It's not a case of it being a helping hand in hard times, it's a case of the more that is given the less responsibility they take for their own welfare!

*What was the back story that lead to your oh so successful and measured life?
Good nutrition, good role models, good home, friends a calm and sensible upbringing. All your neuro transmitters firing up nicely? Then you encountered your partner....a similar background?

People do not all exist in this Enid Blyton world and the things that gave them a leg up have been dismantled.*

I came from a nice working class background so yes I was lucky in that sense. However, I'm the only person in my extended family to have ever gone to university. I went in 2000 & worked two jobs to fund myself and had a student loan which I eventually paid off in my early 30's.

Husband came from a chaotic background. Grew up on a council estate, largely left to his own devices, chaotic parenting and lots of very sad and disruptive things happened to him. Left school with lower qualifications than he was capable of because education wasn't a priority. He found himself a job and then got himself into a field of work he excelled at after a few failed starts and completed his degree whilst working full time. Later when we could afford it he did his PhD. Mine was funded by work, his was self funded.

Oh and to whoever asked, no my degree wasn't free, that's why I had a loan and worked two jobs.

‘Sen children’

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

Unless you have a physical disability most people should be able to walk up to 3 miles to a supermarket (and carry shopping back in a shopping trolley, or rucksack or under your child's pram or pushchair) what absolute rubbish. Have you walked home a weekly food shop for a family of 4, 3 miles? Also plenty of people aren’t disabled but it’s beneficial for them to use a car: eg. Pregnant, working unsociable hours, little children, Sen children. God I hate today’s judgement culture, see a snap shot of someone’s day and make a whole story about them and dictate changes. Well done daily mail

If you'd read all my post beyond the first line you'll see yes, I have walked shopping home for my family 2 miles many times. I didn't own a car until 5 years ago.

I won't deny a car is nice to have, of course it is. But cars are bloody expensive. If it was a choice between keeping a car on the road and being able to feed my family, I'd go for the food every time.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

What’s ‘joke suggestion’ about going to uni/ doing apprenticeship/ working hard for promotion??? well the idea that the answer to poverty is to take a 9k a year uni course in media that will do what for you? That and the idea that we ship in migrants under the condition they don’t better themselves or reproduce. And the idea that everyone on the shop floor of Greggs will move up into management.

You do realise that not one penny of the £9K fee is payable up front??

It’s only repayable at a small amount each month once earning over a certain salary. Many people never fully repay.

It’s irrelevant whether you are poor or not, because you can get a student loan

@Marmitecrackers

Oh and to whoever asked, no my degree wasn't free, that's why I had a loan and worked two jobs.

It would have been very cheap in those days, though

Why is suggesting people walk 3 miles with shopping some kind of outrageous suggestion?! It's an acceptable distance for a healthy adult.

Years ago, many people walked 5+ miles to work and back every day. No wonder we have an obesity epidemic if people can't countenance a walk of more than 15 mins!

But cars are bloody expensive. If it was a choice between keeping a car on the road and being able to feed my family of course but it’s possible plenty of people have a car before they rely on benefits and there’s no money is getting rid of it, it would cost them more to take public transport and private hire cars, not all cars are expensive to run

Why is suggesting people walk 3 miles with shopping some kind of outrageous suggestion?! It's an acceptable distance for a healthy adult I couldn’t get my weekly shop home waking 3 miles, which means going more often, difficult as I work full time.

WitchesGlove if everyone had a degree do you think everyone would be promoted and everyone would earn a high enough wage to live without benefits? Do you understand the basic economic principal of supply and demand?

Degrees are expensive but that's not the only route to progression.

One of my DC's friends completed an apprenticeship last year. She spent 2 years earning less than NMW, but now is on 25k a year, and is only 21. She is likely to double her current salary in the next 10 years.