Hungry kids

One in five parents in the UK is struggling to feed their children – skipping meals and relying on handouts from friends and family to be able to put food on the table.

A report has found that 70 per cent of families suffering from food poverty with children in primary school education rely in some part on food supplied by schools.

This has sparked fears that the absence of free meals or food given out by breakfast or after-school clubs during the summer holidays could see some children go hungry.

More than a quarter of families who are in food poverty believe they will be unable to provide food for all the meals their children need during the school holidays, according the research carried out by supermarket Tesco, along with foodbank charity the Trussell Trust and food redistribution charity FareShare.

“That one in five parents in this country is struggling to afford food for their families and thousands more people are turning to food banks for emergency food is a stark reminder of how tough things have become for many ordinary people,” said Chris Mould, chairman of the Trussell Trust, which has seen demand for its food banks rise by 170 per cent over the past year, taking the number of users in the past 12 months to 350,000, UK-wide. “We’re meeting parents who have gone hungry for days in order to feed their children, and school holidays are always especially difficult with many budgets stretched to breaking point.” 

Half of all families which suffer from it said adults in the household had been forced to miss meals in order to provide for their children, the report found, while 21 per cent of parents hit by food poverty said they had accepted handouts.

Margaret Lynch, chief executive of Citizens Advice Scotland, said that the organisation had referred 300 people to food banks in the past three months. “Sadly, these figures won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has worked in a Scottish Citizens Advice Bureau,” she said, adding that a double whammy of recession and cuts to benefits had left more people struggling to make ends meet.

And the capitalist’s solution to this social problem? 

Tesco stores will be taking part in a national food collection initiative on Friday and Saturday. Donations handed in by the public will be topped up by the supermarket.  Britain’s largest retaileris organising the UK’s biggest-ever food collection this weekend. “It’s hitting families hard, especially when free school meals, breakfast clubs and after-school clubs are not available.” said Rebecca Shelley, group corporate affairs director. She appears to have overlooked the glaringly obvious. Her supermarket chain’s shelves are fully stocked with available food for the poor. But in the case of capitalism, it is a matter of cannot pay, cannot have - and go hungry.