Hungry kids and shitty views

[icequeen34]

I apologise as I'm sure there are already threads on this topic. But I feel so so sad and angry today, not only about Marcus Rashfords campaign to feed hungry kids over the holidays being rejected. But some of the horrible views and justifications being spouted - mainly the old 'lazy parents need to take responsibility for feeding their kids' remark. Some utter twat was saying poor families should grow their own food because 'it's not hard' and another Tory MP claimed the blame lies with absent parents (as if his leader isn't one of those).

These are terrible comments from privileged people who clearly don't understand the lack of time, money, outdoor space and education needed to grow your own or shop more savvy. But even in the cases of the worst most lazy parents, why can't people see that the children shouldn't be the ones to suffer? It really boils my blood especially when MPs get so much in terms of expenses for food.

Sorry for the rant I just feel very disappointed and upset today.

Some of the suggestions about what young kids should eat are so far removed from reality it's unbelievable. Luncheon meat? Wtaf? I wouldn't eat that so I definitely wouldn't expect a child to.

Think that all primary kids should be FSM's. Giving all of our children the opportunity to achieve their full potential, by removing the stigma of food poverty and poor education results from hunger will reap massive benefits for the future economic health of the country. Also huge savings in for the health service not dealing with the consequences of poor nutrition and other effects of poverty.

@Badbanana I don’t think we should force abortion but my comment was in response to the other post. We are NOT “making women lives shit” by being more aware of how many kids we bring into the world.

My nana couldn’t just have an abortion in her day the Dr wouldn’t allow it. Yes my nan did probably make a stew what’s your point? Are you suggesting today’s generation is harder?
The stories my nana tells me hand washed nappies.... we definitely have it easier today I’m not sure how you can’t see that.

The entitlement is real so parents can’t make a stew today?

I never said my nana didn’t get any help what I say (that you don’t like) is that the help available today didn’t exist back then such as food banks and so on (man people managed).

How dare I challenge anyone and then The next issue is “you need electric to make stew”

I am appauled that one poster said " rightly so" to forced abortion. Are we now seeing a rise of Nazis again? Shocking view...you should be ashamed....

It's not entitlement to want to feed your kids though is it? Your nan sounds great but we live in different times.....
Also as we now live in the modern age I thought that views would be more progressive....clearly not.
Not everyone has umpteen kids...i struggle to feed 1 and I have been a teacher and now training to do NHS work

@thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter

Yep, but surely if nan didn't have much money she shouldn't have had kids either?

My nan is 73 and things were a lot harder back then and she can from a very poor family and had a horrendous life. No Dr would allow an abortion back then. She didn’t want the 3rd baby. Unless she was going to leave the newborn on someone’s door step what could she do?

Also my point that you have chosen to miss as it doesn’t sit well with you is she always fed her kids. I know she went without meals as she couldn’t afford it but her kids were fed and she hardly had any money.

Also not everyone lives in a place with a welfare state no dads mother grew up in a Country with NO welfare state and they managed.

@malificent7 no it’s not entitlement to want to feed your kids and I wouldn’t want to hear or see if a hungry child because I agree it’s not the child’s fault at all. Obviously once the child is born there’s nothing you can do.

There’s a bigger issue than just throwing money around that we don’t have. We need to get to the root of the problem here because you can get a loaf of bread for 50p, breakfast clubs are available today. Some schools provide bagels without attending a breakfast club you just need to arrive a little earlier.

There’s also food banks for people who are struggling.

@timeforanewstart

You realise only some qualify for free meals many working parents won't and will have less disposable income Maybe we should be looking at why children are going hungry and if their parents geniunally are struggling or their priorities lie elsewhere We have struggled financially but my kids have always been fed Cheap food is availible and I am actually reading on lots of sites plenty of people who receive fsm who don't have an issue with this We have state benefits , cb etc for food and fsm has always only been whilst at school

Exactly this!

@Pyewhacket

Does a point of view only become shitty when it disagrees with your own ?

It's shitty because it's immoral. HTH

Problem is there is a massive chunk of kids going hungrey due to shit parents not lack of money
But how an earth do you separate these from the genuine ones.

How marvellous! Are our esteemed leaders giving 'the poor'their own plots of land, sheds, tools, seeds and training on how to grow food? And the CSA (or whatever the current shitshow is called) is being replaced by a service which is fit for purpose?
What excellent news.

I think there's a lot of misunderstanding around this issue.
As pps have said, I don't think it's helpful to pretend that the majority of kids in low income families are going without food.
Cereal for tea the day before pay day perhaps.
Mums skipping meals to feed kids, definitely.
But most low income people are feeding their kids, most of the time. It's insulting to pretend otherwise.
My kids attend free summer holiday schemes that are advertised as entertainment but funded as feeding programmes. The organised activities are window dressing to make the free food socially acceptable to the families it's aimed at.
It's hard to know other people's situation but I would guess one or two families using the service will genuinely be in the position of not being able to feed the kids. And usually that's a short term acute situation. Maybe a benefits sanction or similar.
Then there's a much bigger group of families who would have fed their kids but might have sacrificed something else to do it. The adults might have missed a meal or they might have skipped a payment on something.
It's not as acute a need but knowing the kids will get fed is a relief and one less thing to worry about.
Then there's people like myself who don't "need" the service. I'm sending my kids for the advertised purpose of socialising/having fun and because I know that's not the "real" purpose I'm donating quietly behind the scenes.
I'm also part of the window dressing. If only very poor people used the service then sending your kids would have a stigma and people would avoid it.

I think so many people are worried about the future and how the money is going to be paid back, that they are now saying things they probably don’t really mean.
To continue to fund free school meals over the holidays is going to cost millions so of course some people feel aggrieved. Unfortunately it’s the innocent children who will suffer without it.

@rwalker

Problem is there is a massive chunk of kids going hungrey due to shit parents not lack of money But how an earth do you separate these from the genuine ones.

You don’t because it’s not the children’s fault ever so you do what you can to help them now. Initially throw some money at the families as a band aid and then maybe you create a bunch of jobs to try and help address various root causes of children being in poverty, which also employs lots of people who lost their jobs during the pandemic and you work on sustainable solutions. Some people will always live chaotic lives and their children are always likely to need extra help. I can’t fathom that anyone thinks those children don’t deserve that help. They are children & they can’t do anything to better their current circumstances themselves. Not only do they not have the material advantages that you/your children may have they also don’t have a reliable adult to take care of them all the time. They couldn’t possibly be more vulnerable so how can anyone not think we need policies to help them. OP you are right people have some awful, awful views on this. If you think it’s appalling then write to your MP, particularly if your MP is one of the many conservatives who are in power and can most easily do something about it and let them know. Then if you have the available funds go and donate money/supplies to a local foodbank &/or a charity that helps children in these kind of circumstances (we send to action for children but sure there are many other local and national ones) and then if you feel really strongly contact your local school and volunteer to help them fundraise so that come Christmas they can have money to step in and fill the gap for kids at their school. Whatever you end up doing write to your MP again and make it clear it’s absolutely not acceptable that in one of the richest countries on earth we have so many reliant on charity. It’s disgraceful we think as a society that it’s ok to pay people essential to running services we all use so little that it’s common they need to use food banks. Same that we can shrug off children going without meals because their parents are useless (even if that’s the reason which I’m sure it only is some of the time). Anyone with other practical suggestions on how to help people who are struggling?

I agree. We don’t get free school meals but I couldn’t ever begrudge anyone who does. What I don’t understand is the logic behind not extending it- “parents should feed their own children” and the like. Can anyone explain to me why, if a parent can’t afford to feed their child in term time when they have a half decent chance of being able to work to pay for it, that same parent is somehow expected to manage afford to feed their children during the holidays when they will likely not be able to work or at best will be on very reduced hours due to inability to also afford child care? Now obviously there are people who play the system or abuse it but surely that cannot be true of the majority? I can’t reasonably imagine that the majority of parents out there are spending their cash on fags, drink and nights out rather than feeding their children so they only bother when it is term time and those children get free meals. Surely the majority will be parents who are either single parents on minimum wage or a couple on minimum wage where the onus of child care is on them other than when the children are in school? And what I don’t understand also is why on earth we are punishing children for the choices and circumstances surrounding their living situation. They can’t do anything about it can they? Yet it’s them who will be going hungry.

That’s what you took from my post, that your nan could cook a stew?

Google Sophie’s Choice if you don’t understand the reference, and then read my post again.

Good that you admit your nan obviously had help, I’m assuming from friends or family. And what exactly do you think people who don’t have that support network do?

[quote CanwerollontheNY]@Badbanana I don’t think we should force abortion but my comment was in response to the other post. We are NOT “making women lives shit” by being more aware of how many kids we bring into the world.

My nana couldn’t just have an abortion in her day the Dr wouldn’t allow it. Yes my nan did probably make a stew what’s your point? Are you suggesting today’s generation is harder?
The stories my nana tells me hand washed nappies.... we definitely have it easier today I’m not sure how you can’t see that.

The entitlement is real so parents can’t make a stew today?

I never said my nana didn’t get any help what I say (that you don’t like) is that the help available today didn’t exist back then such as food banks and so on (man people managed).

How dare I challenge anyone and then The next issue is “you need electric to make stew” [/quote]
How did she manage though? You can’t magically summon money you don’t have, how did she do it?

The point about electricity is a relevant one, people think they can throw together a meal for pennies - a carrot, onion, lentils and stock cube for soup, £2 in total, feeds four for two meals - but never ever take into consideration the cost of the pans, the spoons, the bus fare to the shop, the unlikelyhood of being able to buy only one stock cube, not to mention that’s one meal. Saying ‘my Nan managed’ isn’t enough information.

I never get why people fall over themselves to list all the reasons it's the parents responsibility/ fault. Yes we know all this but it's not the kids fault . Let them starve essentially? People are too academic about this, if a hungry child was right in front of them maybe it would be different. Yes we need to look at the bigger picture, figure out the causes and tackle them but we are in a pandemic and action is needed now. We can look at long term solutions later surely.

These debates never really resolve anything. They are difficult issues that are discussed and people have strong views. We also have a bigger problem of people eating too much not too little. Eg if we could move to never giving any child anything to drink other than tap water once they come off breast milk that would be a wonderful start to improve their health.

I often like a tin of sardines and a raw carrot. Now I am not saying families without money should have those for every meal but it is not a bad choice and if you cannot afford a tin opener you can pay a bit extra to get a tin where you can pull the lid up from the can.

@Badbanana

That’s what you took from my post, that your nan could cook a stew?

Google Sophie’s Choice if you don’t understand the reference, and then read my post again.

Good that you admit your nan obviously had help, I’m assuming from friends or family. And what exactly do you think people who don’t have that support network do?

If you read properly another poster suggested the stew! Your confused if you think the government can just hand out money. What about all the working people on low incomes? Some of these examples are extreme here in UK it’s not the norm to have no electric in your house we are NOT a 3rd world Country. This time next year we will be in a shit show of debt!!

I often like a tin of sardines and a raw carrot. Now I am not saying families without money should have those for every meal but it is not a bad choice and if you cannot afford a tin opener you can pay a bit extra to get a tin where you can pull the lid up from the can.

Well, at least 'let them eat sardines and raw carrot' is a more original - to the point of slightly bizarre - twist on the usual 'let them eat porridge' of these threads

@Pumperthepumper how did your grandparents manage? Or are all your family members wealthy? Going to the extreme of saying someone can’t afford pans or a spoon and so on is a bit much come on we are in UK.

@rwalker

Problem is there is a massive chunk of kids going hungrey due to shit parents not lack of money But how an earth do you separate these from the genuine ones.

Is that children being hungry because of poor parenting who are genuine or children who are hungry because their parents don’t have enough money?

[quote CanwerollontheNY]@Pumperthepumper how did your grandparents manage? Or are all your family members wealthy? Going to the extreme of saying someone can’t afford pans or a spoon and so on is a bit much come on we are in UK.[/quote]
I have no idea, but I’m not the one claiming that my Nan had a magical way of coping that everyone should be able to do. Still no answer to how she did it?

Yes, we’re in the UK where pans and spoons cost money. You don’t get these free from the government, or free electricity, which you’ve pretended again isn’t a cost issue.