Children going hungry in the summer holidays

You get phones, Sky and other luxuries on contract which if you don't pay when you fall on hard times, gives you more debt. You can't just opt out whilst the powers that be sort out your benefits so you may find yourself in abject poverty for a short period of time when the food band would be a life saver. That happened to my daughter's family when she was suddenly disabled and her husband had to stop work to look after their 18 month old daughter. It took nearly a year to sort out the benefits and we'd got to the end of our savings making sure they had enough to live on. Consequently, one week when they were really desperate they had to go to the Foodbank and they were mortified but very grateful. I've no doubt that some of the Grans would have been looking at their nice car, phones, Sky etc and making judgements but 5 years on, they are in an entirely different situation and still give food to food banks because they are so grateful for the help they gave.

Lilyflower are you saying you'd rather watch kids go without...that living how you did is a better way? Surely we've moved on from those times.Period poverty is a real problem for some schools ,where girls are missing days every month due to no money for sanitary products ,Children who are hungry dont learn...they dont concentrate the same if their tummies are rumbling with lack of food.
Lets all head back to the last century though ,to slum living ,to kids with rickets ,to mothers worn down in poverty .After all those were the good old days...right

Children are going hungry, mainly due to feckless idle parents who don't consider it their function to provide meals for their children, and leave them to forage for food at home; evidence gained via Home/School links and SEN work with deprived children, also CAB experience.

Financial priorities now are large televisions and associated packages, mobile phones and social media. There is usually sufficient income to pay for food and rent, but not large media packages. Regrettably some families are adept at exploiting agencies such as the church, health centres and schools, and their children will be first in the queue for free food.

Dinner ladies are the people to identify the genuinely hungry children, those clearly not receiving a nutritious diet; the families they come from would surprise you as they are frequently not those with very low incomes.

Ask the people who actually see them eat.

Sadly Paddyann the scheme you speak of is not country wide in Scotland.
I volunteer in a foodbank and I know it doesn’t work the way some on GN think it does. I wish they weren’t necessary at all ...

I have never had to use a food bank. I might well have needed to but I chose not to smoke, or own a car, or wear make-up, or drink alcohol, or have holidays. Because I chose to deny myself those things I was able to feed my children, look after our home and not be a burden on anyone else. We also still managed to have lots of fun.

There will always be those who are deserving of our help, who work in poorly paid jobs or who have just had a really bad time lately . There will, unfortunately, also be those who take advantage.

It's good to hear that there are plenty of people like pensionpat who will pick up the slack of other mother's inability to cope, wanton or otherwise. I thank all of them for their unselfish and non-judgemental attitudes, except those who judge me and my ilk for not having the same opinions.

The absolute lack of compassion shown by some GNers astounds me. It is exactly the same as the Victorian attitude that there were 2 sorts of poor- the deserving and the undeserving and only the former should be helped. The undeserving, judged because of their lifestyles, could be left to starve. These are children we are talking about. There is substantial evidence that children who are underfed do not grow properly, have poor brain development, and difficulty learning in school. During the 6 week summer break all the good done by feeding a child during term time can be undone. The child returns to school in September poorly nourished and unable to adjust. It takes the Autumn term to feed them properly, by that time they are inevitably way behind their peers. It isn't their fault if their parents are feckless, or addicted to drugs, or have mental health problems, or are unable to care for them properly for some other reason. Even the Edwardians knew children needed to be fed. The first act allowing local councils to allocate money for free meals for children was passed in 1906. Over 100 years later we have people objecting to what should be a basic right of a child to be properly fed, and if the parents can't, or won't, do it, it becomes the responsibility of a caring society

What I wanted to say, Trisher but was just too angry so it would have come out very badly. Thankyou.

Do some of the people on here who are passing judgement on foodbank users realise that many of these people aren't actually on out of work benefits but people who are actually working to make a living on very low wages?
Even nursing staff in the NHS are being forced to use foodbanks as their wages aren't worth diddley. Their rents have rocketed whilst they're still on the same pay. Do you think they should be using foodbanks? It's like being in a third world country under this governm,ent.
www.independent.co.uk/voices/nurse-strike-pay-nhs-crisis-why-i-voted-for-industrail-action-a7736896.html

Look, these are the facts - we live in a country with a very generous welfare state where those who genuinely are unable to work are helped, but this is only meant to be a temporary measure.

The rouble is of course the system is being massively abused by too many who are perfectly able to work, yet chose to sit on their backsides and claim benefits, and keep having more and more kids they can't afford.

We all know it goes on, unless of course you have allowed yourselves to be taken in by the idiotic claptrap spouted by those on the Left, who would have you believe that the 'wicked Tories' are letting hundreds of thousands of children go hungry.

It's nonsense, and I am particularly surprised that so many on here have fallen for it, especially as surely, most of us are old enough to have heard from our parents and grandparents about what REAL poverty was like back in the 20s and 30s.

I read recently that a smartphone is now seen as an essential item for the 'hard up' to have.

Honestly, you couldn't make it up!

trisher, I am reasonably certain there is nobody who has commented on this thread who lack compassion for any child in need. However, that does not mean we cannot query how that child came to be in need.

I have worked all my life with the vulnerable and/or needy members of our country. Hopefully always with empathy and respect. That does not mean I have not despaired or been horrified by their life style or life choices.

Yes, children need to be fed, and yes of course we will pick up the pieces. But if we don't take note of the reasons behind it whether zero hour contracts, low pay, feckless parents, waste of money on takeaways/cigarettes/alcohol etc, it will continue for ever more.

wildswan16 you can despair of lifestyle choices and have any sort of investigations into the reasons you want, it doesn't make one bit of difference to the child's hunger. The reasons are so complex and individual they will probably never be fully understood. And the utopian dream that the welfare state would eventually lift everyone out of poverty has of course proved wrong. That doesn't mean the concept that it is essential to feed children properly is wrong. Feeding children properly enables them to acheive and hopefully to do better. It doesn't mean that there will never be poverty or poor parents again, and yes it probably will continue for evermore. It is a sad fact that our society is so structured that there will always be an underclass.

JenniferEccles and wildswan16 did you actually bother to read the link I provided? I'm not actually some sort of ''lefty'' as you seem to believe in fact I'm very much against some of what goes on in the Labour Party today.
Food bank use isn't solely confined to those who are out of work, and yes, there are ''scroungers'' in this country who've never had a days work in their lives, but wouldn't you agree that it's very disturbing that people IN work are going to foodbanks and are having to forgo heat in their homes in order to feed their kids and vice versa?

good post trisher

And I don't think it is just our society as other types of society have been shown to fail too.
This is partly down to human nature, has been from time immemorial, and we will never change that. We can only do our best, especially for these children.

The last time I took a load of tins and two unopen packets of nappies I had at my house for dgs but now he is dry he no longer needs them, across to our local food bank I arrived a little early and it was not open so I waited outside. Four young women arrived and one showed her latest tattoo and another said she was getting another one at the end of the week too when she got her benefits. Both of these women had babies in a buggy and one had a toddler too. No doubt these parents will not give up the new tatoo to feed their children so the poor babies desperately need others who care more to donate food to feed their children and provide them with nappies. Even though I was annoyed I stayed and donated. I just feel sorry for the babies and children when their own parents don't put them first.

I don’t give to food banks, and very careful who I help, I’ve had my fingers bitten to often. When my children were young, there was a mother young children in the same class as my children, and a step GS who lived with her. I now things were tight in the household, but they managed. We weren’t struggling, but living to a budget. To cut a long story short, things became desperate for her, and I found along, with other mums it later appeared, gave her food for the children. One day she mentioned she had nothing for tea that night, so I said to call in after school, I was Shopping later that day so could pick something up for her, she actually asked if they could have some ready meals not something that needed cooking because she couldn’t be bothered!. I was leaving the supermarket that pm, and saw her outside the door, with a scratch card and smoking, !. I had that children for tea at mine that night,.

There was another family who’s children had free school meals, the children had to pocket something off the tray each lunch time to take home for the father to eat that evening, he still had money for the pub though, and never looked hungr, the dinner ladies use to give them s little extra when they could.

No I don’t give to food banks, I would never let anyone go hungry, but I’m careful how I do it,

Reading this thread reminded me of Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt’s largely autobiographical novel. The family weren’t ‘deserving’ in the eyes of those who ran the Catholic charities their mother applied to for relief, their father was a feckless drunk, their mother ground down by poverty. The children went hungry as a consequence. How can it be “virtue signalling” to want to ensure children don’t go hungry. The free school meal does need replacing during school holidays.

If you’re signing on for job seekers, or working zero hours, an iPhone is essential because that’s how communication takes place. I despair at the judgemental, cold an£ critical approach shown by many on this thread.

Some parents have not been mentioned, they don’t feed their children because the children will have free school meals but I believe many of these parents would feed their children if free meals were not available, simply a case of - if school meals are free why should I buy food ,

I think it is a sad world if you can't help a child who has feckless parents.

I help at a food bank and you can’t generalise about the clients. Yes there are probably some who abuse the system but most are there because of benefit delays and many are really embarrassed to come in.
I don’t know of any schools in our area providing meals in the holidays

Yes me too icanhandthemback . I can’t believe some of the posts I am reading . Is it a child’s fault that their parents might choose to spend what little they have on cigarettes ?

Oh and ( sorry I can’t remember who said it ) I really don’t believe nurses use foodbanks .

I have just read through the whole thread. People are entitled to their opinions, as is said often in posts.
I am thankful that DH and I have always had opportunities that allowed us a good education, good jobs and be able to give our DCs a well provided loving home.
I am not naive and we both have worked in some of the most deprived areas of England.
I am sure that the system is open to abuse, from time to time, but I will continue to donate to food banks.
It amounts to a couple of coffees out a week.

Totally agree with GabriellaG and Lilyflower

Some lovely people on here, ensuring that children do not go hungry during the school holidays and others passing judgement on this.NO CHILD should go hungry in the 21st century - NOT HERE OR ANYWHERE ELSE.Surely, why food banks are used/needed, and what people - as adults/parents - spend their money on - should NOT, and must NOT be held against hungry children. The people on here providing meals for children who would otherwise go hungry during the school holidays are to be admired. I had not really thought about this before, but, I'm now going to inquire whether we have similar schemes in my area and contribute myself.

Depressing how many of the comments on here sound like the wealthy family in 'An Inspector Calls'.
People never think that allegorical tales with a moral apply to them.