Children going hungry in the summer holidays

gillybob, sadly, a single parent nurse who is struggling to make childcare payments in order to work, may well find themselves waiting for top up benefits like Tax and Child Credits to come through and may need to resort to food banks. The Benefits system is slow and cumbersome, some would say inhumane, and actually getting to talk to someone for an emergency loan is a mission, especially if you are working.
There will always be those who play the system and usually they have enough money out of it not to need the food banks unless they are feckless with their money too. I am not a bleeding heart liberal who thinks everybody in the world is owed something but I am somebody who strongly believes that we must protect the vulnerable like children, the mentally ill and the elderly!

NanKate I will also put somthing in the food bank collection points in my local supermarket

Period poverty is something that I would like to get involved with i,e, find a local group to fund raise/ distribute products to females in need.

Thank you for highlighting this problem. ???

One good thing that has come out of reading some of the comments on here; I shall up my Foodbank donations. Partly to help with the school holiday problems for families and partly to compensate for the disgusting attitudes of some on here. Thanks Nankate for starting this thread, I bet you didn't realise just what you unleashed!

Thank you Gill for your comments. I rather innocently started this thread as I was worried about local children going hungry. I thought of my two grandchildren if suddenly their regular food was withdrawn, I would be sick with worry.

I suppose I was rather naive in thinking most of the GN contributors would rally round and be supportive.

In the town that I live in last week our Garden Centre burnt down and a nearby house too, the family lost everything. Fortunately people are rallying round, including my WI to set the family up again.

One never knows when disaster can hit any of us.

She has been looking and been for interviews. She is now looking into apprenticeships. Thanks for suggesting though and the free meal idea hadn’t thought of.

The posts on here make me despair. The nastiness, lack of understanding, smugness, lack of compassion, understanding are unbelievable. If this is the kind of people who are on GN then I truly am not sure that I wish to be associated with it. There are a many, thank heavens who are not, but shame on you Jennifereccles eazybee, GabriellaG and others, you know who you are and you should be ashamed. Yes, there are likely some who exploit the system, but as a taxpayer I am happy for the majority to be helped, despite the very small feckless minority. Children do not choose to be born into families who fail to nurture them, and I am sure they feel even better knowing that a load of judgmental people think they should not even have been born because their parents are poor.

Thanks jcig. Like many others who have seen the reality of how folks end up suicidal, poverty stricken, addicted, depressed and hopeless, you haven't lost compassion. Compassion seems the wrong word now I've written it. common human decency would fit the bill.
All the major faiths, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hindu for example, raise money, give to those worse off than themselves. I mentioned earlier, the judgemental attitude of some charities in earlier days, thankfully now passed.
Thanks to all of you still helping those less fortunate than most to us are.

I think it is a sad world if you can't help a child who has feckless parents
succinct and to the point icanhandthemback

This is probably easier to read than the Hansard link I gave above. It is a link from last year, so I do hope that some progress has been made since then:
inews.co.uk/news/uk/full-mps-demanding-action-stop-children-going-hungry-school-holidays/[

I used to work for a mental health charity and was one of the few who issued the vouchers for the food bank. There are alot of hoops to jump through before you get a voucher, and there is a limit to how often you could go. I sent one lady who was trying hard to put her life back together. The next day I was talking her down from suicide, the reason being she had food she couldn't use Why she didn't own a tin opener. Don't judge until you understand. Please remember that 1 in 4 of us has suffered, is suffering or will suffer from a mental health problem and just because we can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there. PS I brought her an electric can opener with her
arthritis she couldn't use a manual one.

As an ex advisor for a charity for the elderly I was one who had to decide whether a person received a token for a food bank if they came to us in need. The questions we asked were quite searching. What had happened to many is that they had had a change in circumstances and there was a delay in paying their benefits which could go on for a period of sometimes 6 weeks. There were emergency payments but again they are not instant. Others were very proud and not until they hadn't eaten for three days would ask for help. With anything like that there are always the con artists but to be most people had genuine reasons asking for help. My father would not accept benefits and for nearly a year three of us existed on my secretarial wage and often the food for the day was a stew that consisted of nothing much but gravy and a few veg that we had grown ourselves. Therefore I know what it is like to be on the last 50p and so glad my circumstances have changed. Children often are the innocent sufferers in many situations and I am just glad they are getting a meal.x

“Do some research before you pass judgement” Barnet?
I’m not for one moment condoning the comments you object to but surely you are equally bigoted to state that the people making them are most likely Tories, badly wanted Brexit and hate immigrants?
Perhaps you could share your research that allows you to pass judgement too.

Doubt that Citizens Advice would have made the comments about feckless parents eazybee? Citizens Advice are a non judgemental advice agency any CA which blamed any person for their misfortune in the way you imply would risk having their ability to run under CA banner removed!!

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.

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.

Totally agree with GabriellaG and Lilyflower

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.

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 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

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

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 ,

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.

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,

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.

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.