BBC news article. Kids may go hungry over the summer.

[Bumblebee]

That mostly makes me wonder how so many parents thought it was a good idea to bring children into the world that they couldn't afford to feed.

Circumstances change for a lot of people. I have friends who were very well off. Probably earning more than mr meldrum but lost jobs and then poor mental health and a divorce. So it’s not always feckless unemployed lazy people having kids for benefits that need food banks.
In fact I think most users of food bank are that middle ground. Earn too much for government hell but due to high costs of housing etc find themselves in bad situations from time to time.

 

[black ripped skinnies]

That mostly makes me wonder how so many parents thought it was a good idea to bring children into the world that they couldn't afford to feed.

Circumstances change. Some parents may have lost their jobs? Or, the high costs of childcare in school holidays affects shopping budgets? I find your comment quite narrow minded.
Or in my case, I'm struggling to feed my kids because they've eaten £80 of shopping in about 3 days. They have 2 breakfasts, 7 snacks, lunch, dinner, and god knows how many Ice poles

 

[Mabelrose]

Originally started in Mrs Meldrum #50


BBC news report saying 3million children will go hungry this summer as parents struggle to feed them during the school holidays, yet she’s moaning and raging at the world because her husband is off working earning around 60k a year!??? Any sheep lurking here have a word with yourselves, why do you like her???

 

[fireflies]

Circumstances change. Some parents may have lost their jobs? Or, the high costs of childcare in school holidays affects shopping budgets? I find your comment quite narrow minded.
Or in my case, I'm struggling to feed my kids because they've eaten £80 of shopping in about 3 days. They have 2 breakfasts, 7 snacks, lunch, dinner, and god knows how many Ice poles

Lol feel your pain 4 kids here and teen eats like an adult.
Its battle keep fruit bowl full.
Crisps , cakes and chocolate dont last.
Resorted doing a few things buying less fruit juice and fizzy drinks and getting varieties squash and flavoured waters.
Rationing and hiding treats cant quite manage that with lollies.
Buying boring snacks like yogurts/ raisins/ carrot sticks/breadsticks and biscuits jot fancy ones vakue cookies bourbans and digestive if they hungry they will eat them
Tinned or frozen fruit as backups when fresh run out.
Milk i struggle with as they snack on cereal.
Spent £45 lidls today unsure how long will lasts.
Can totally see how change circumstances.
Many years ago we had job loss for 6 or 7 weeks over the summer it was very hard.
Trying get any sorts benefits jsa and housing took weeks as does tax credits.
We were offered foodbank vouchers but dident take them up on it.
Instead i remember one month we went to big tesco and did massive nearly all value shop for 60 quid and that lasted the entire month. We picked free blackberries they all out now and regularly nightly looked at reductions.
Theres much less value lines in the main supermarkets now than used to be abd their prices crept up.
I made loads from scratch we got buy.
Now we still do shop around home bargains,b&m , Iceland aldis liidls local market but not everyone can easily shop around transport and time.
I regularly donate to foodbanks.
Infleuencers go on about meat free sometimes its not a choice.
Hardly any of them cool from scratch/budget and buy lots convenience.

 

[Haydot]

I think the level of ignorance displayed on this thread is crazy.
A large proportion of people who use food banks do so due to changes in benefits, delays in receiving benefits or benefits being cut or stopped.
Other people suffer through things like being made redundant, losing a job, zero hours contracts, the household earner dying, an illness in the family, looking after children that aren’t biologically yours for other family members. A large household expenditure that wipes out your excess cash.
Summer holidays may also bring increased childcare costs for a lot of families, expenditures on new school uniforms etc.
If you already struggle month to month and work cash in hand while your kids are in school then over the summer that may not be an option. So you’re short on money and have extra meals to account for over the week.
It’s all well and good saying ‘you can get xyz from Aldi for £40’ but if after you’ve paid your essentials your in the red then where is that £40 coming from?
Regardless of whose to blame the reality is that there are children going hungry over the holidays.

 

[cccccccmmmmmmmmm]

BBC news report saying 3million children will go hungry this summer as parents struggle to feed them during the school holidays, yet she’s moaning and raging at the world because her husband is off working earning around 60k a year!??? Any sheep lurking here have a word with yourselves, why do you like her???

That mostly makes me wonder how so many parents thought it was a good idea to bring children into the world that they couldn't afford to feed.

 

[Peggy Lee]

That mostly makes me wonder how so many parents thought it was a good idea to bring children into the world that they couldn't afford to feed.

Many will be victims of redundancy or unfaithful partners playing happy families with new partners and their kids or like my niece whose husband became depressed lost his job then hung himself there are many reasons for bairns living in poverty

 

[black ripped skinnies]

Mine too! But when I think of hunger, I think of nothing or little in the day. So sad if kids are actually hungry whatever the reason My lot are like locusts.

I know what you mean, there's a little lad at school who isn't entitled to free meals but was always hungry and asking the dinner ladies for bread Mine are still at the age of getting free school meals, but I felt so sorry for him that I've sent my lad in with loads of extra snacks to share. hate thinking of kids going hungry.
Sorry for the off topic! X

 

[F the dust.]

I know what you mean, there's a little lad at school who isn't entitled to free meals but was always hungry and asking the dinner ladies for bread Mine are still at the age of getting free school meals, but I felt so sorry for him that I've sent my lad in with loads of extra snacks to share. hate thinking of kids going hungry.
Sorry for the off topic! X

It's awful and kind of relevant to the topic, because Mrs bloody Meldrum has no idea of the struggles real people are facing! X

 

[F the dust.]

My last word on the subject. My comment about buying porridge etc...If my child and I feed 4 ( far from rich) was hungry and I could give them, porridge, beans on toast, egg with beans or a £1.00 lasagne I would. That is my point, because that would be a better alternative to hunger. Not that I agree it's right not that I'd like it either..course I wouldn't but I'd do it none the less so their stomachs were full. My apologies if you thought differently. Oh and if utility prices were lowered and capped that would be a start, to helping us all.

 

[fireflies]

Just putting some scenarios out there
If you dont live in a city with an abundance of shops and you dont have a car you go to your nearest if its Coop its expensive.
Tesco metro has less range than big Tesco and costs more than out if town supermarket people drive to they have a e tier price structure.
We have Tesco Express 5mins walk we go a lot but its expensive.
Even in a city I have worked many enough areas and estates I have seen poverty 1st hand despite not living in that area.
1 area i worked in had small stretch high street, bouncer in the chemist door and post office even had security.
The giro day we use call it times were busy I worked for a food retailer so I used see what people brought.
When they get paid its live like kings but as the weeks went on the trolley would become less.
I have seen low income families feed their kids on frozen convenience foods and ready meals.
Some claim junk food is is cheaper and in some cases it is.
Many dont seem have any knowledge of cooking from scratch budgeting and making food last especially if they in cycle if teen motherhood.
I know freinds who split and their dads wont pay maintainance.
Just watching news recently about steelworks scared me we have whole towns relying on 1 unreliable employer.
Often council estates have 1 or 2 shops expensive prices.
Public transport outside of London or least where I live is extortionate so harder to shop around.
Foodbanks have increased last 10years i read about people walking 8miles to their nearest foodbank.
I believe you need be refered with voucher from nhs/ council you can just rock up abd get free food which I think most people think happens.
The trash papers like Daily Mail love a article about low income families blowing their money.
The threshold free school meals now is very low.
Which sadly means theres a group in the middle that go hungry.
Why should infants get free and juniors dont its bonkers ifs 1 good thing lib dems pushed for.
School meals here for primary junior child are £2.40 a day x20days/month is £45.60 thats some families weekly grocery budget.
Child benefit is around that for children that are not 1st born.
The threshold tax credits these days is quite low I think 24k dont quote me on it.
Universal credits also hit some families hard.

 

[Vee6]

Sorry if I seem to be making light of this I'm not! But you can buy bread and a tin of beans. Or shops own porridge oats for 30p. I do wonder how do many go hungry. Even if it's super noodles from Iceland for 50p. That said fuel prices for gas/electric are sky bloody high to cook stuff!

Would you want to live on bread, brand and porridge oats???

 

[Ruby’s mum]

That mostly makes me wonder how so many parents thought it was a good idea to bring children into the world that they couldn't afford to feed.

Circumstances can change, maybe things were fine when they had them but years on health problems, unexpected job loss, desertion, family tragedy, etc etc. We shouldn’t be so quick to judge.

 

[Mabelrose]

This is why I’m so infuriated by these influencers ( mummy floggers) they are give so much free and also paid extortionate amounts of money to advertise stuff yet constantly moan! It’s very easy to think people shouldn’t have kids if they can’t afford them abdbin some cases it’s true! However for a lot of people who are just about getting by school holidays push them just over tipping point. Mrs Meldrum turning up to the food bank empty handed I would hate to live in a world where anyone would think we are not all responsible for little ones. I give what I can, I’m lucky, my child has never gone hungry, had always had a secure home, so if I can help in anyway for those that don’t I will.

 

[F the dust.]

Secondary school uniform is extortionate. My daughters blazer is over £50 and the jumpers £30.
My son went to a grammar school and the three pe kits plus lab wear and summer and winter blazers and no bursary or funding. There is a reason that only certain demographics access this kind of education.
We do ok but I know we are only a few pay packets away from a crisis. So I don't judge people for struggling.

School holidays are an expensive time. You think about not only the extra food but also that’s traditionally a time for new uniform and schools shoes. I think uniform should be got rid of. If you have a tiny budget for everything and have to pay for school uniform then that budget for day to day clothing is greatly decreased. Kids can still tell who’s in the finest John Lewis/M&S uniform or the Aldi budget range. So if the clothing was from Gucci or Primark the ones who will say something will say it whether it’s about uniform or clothing.

Exactly, so many factors involved. I stay at home because my son is high on the autism spectrum. My husband works full time but is poorly paid and up at 5am to get started for 5.30am. We have four kids my son with autism being the youngest. I worked until he was at nursery and diagnosed. We have no help and couldn't afford specialist child care. Bills are dreaded. I try to buy a bit each week with regard to school uniforms, but worry about it. So I do understand the struggle. Cheap food solves the short term problem of hunger but sadly not the long term problems.

 

[Deepsigh2018]

I think its so easy to see how expensive it can be in the holidays my kids are constantly eating at the moment. I have found the past year hard financially having to pay over a grand in childcare. Thankfully we always have enough to cover the basics but it is hard.

Im a teacher and ive seen pupils coming into school hungry due to neglect and ive also seen parents trying their best but still struggling to cover basic needs.

With constant redundancies in companies. The cost of living with rent/mortgage payments, council tax, electricity/gas, water etc life is hard.

I don't think anybody has set out to have children they couldn't feed just the circumstances of life changing. I know I was made redundant last year and thankfully found another job within 6 weeks but a family member of mine who was made redundant from her job then ended up getting behind on bills/mortgage. Teenage boys constantly eating they had to visit a food bank. Luckily they managed to borrow money off their parents until they were back on their feet.

Life is hard for a lot of people sadly and skipping meals or offering small meals could be a means of still keeping a roof over their head.

Its just so sad

 

[black ripped skinnies]

It's just so heartbreaking and eye opening reading this thread. I wish there was something we could do, i feel like in 2019 in one of the richest countries in the world we shouldn't have kids going to school hungry, and kids pretending to be 16 to work to feed themselves/siblings.
Other than donating more to food banks, and packing extras in to the kids lunchboxes I wouldn't know where to even begin to help

 

[Oohthedrama]

Hey all,
Please be respectful of each other’s comments and back away from any arguments that are brewing
Thank you

 

[fireflies]

Secondary school uniform is extortionate. My daughters blazer is over £50 and the jumpers £30.
My son went to a grammar school and the three pe kits plus lab wear and summer and winter blazers and no bursary or funding. There is a reason that only certain demographics access this kind of education.
We do ok but I know we are only a few pay packets away from a crisis. So I don't judge people for struggling.

School holidays are an expensive time. You think about not only the extra food but also that’s traditionally a time for new uniform and schools shoes. I think uniform should be got rid of. If you have a tiny budget for everything and have to pay for school uniform then that budget for day to day clothing is greatly decreased. Kids can still tell who’s in the finest John Lewis/M&S uniform or the Aldi budget range. So if the clothing was from Gucci or Primark the ones who will say something will say it whether it’s about uniform or clothing.

You speak much sense bumblebee I agree with so many points.
I have 3 kids in 3 different schools.
2 allow 1 days debt school dinners and online payments.
I think senior school kitchen is provided in house.
The 2 primaries school kitchen is no longer council run its been privatised and run by private companies called dolce and Integra.
They are less forgiving with debts and zero flexibility.
Primary is 2.40 a day seniors is 2.60.
Bus fare to senior school is 2.50 a day.
Breakfasts or tuck bar morning break we top up money online additional to lunches we normallly add £1 a day.
So senior school child £ 3.60 a day food plus £2.50 a day bus costs £6.10 a day to get fed and have a education
£122 per month!
Uniforms when she started year 6 was over £500 state academy.
Other average academies are £300 to 400 parents to use only 1 uniform provider shop not supermarkets non logo.
I underestimated how costly a senior age child is.
My 2 younger kids go on year 6 residential trip the same year £800 as 400 each for less than a week in the UK.
Year 6 costly time leavers proms, leavers hoodys.
Presents for teachers has reached insane levels tbe pressure of class collections seen 1 mum shamed for giving very little made me so angry.
A council who split sliblings cant be 1 places at once at Primary age so additional travel costs and some childcare as cant be at 2 schools miles apart at the same time and they too young to make their own way to and from school know a few people in that situation.
School trips additional.
A freimd had to go begging to the head to get help with cost of trips and it's discretionary and very embarrassing for some families.
School's budgets cut so they constantly fundraising pushy pta mums also numerous charity days we supposed to create outfits at last minute and take in money.
I dont remember half of this when i grew up in the 80s. Times have changed.

 

[Oohthedrama]

At least during the school year kids are being seen daily, someone can hopefully tell if there’s a problem, but during the summer holidays they can go weeks without seeing anyone.
I could easily believe that article

I don’t think it has anything to do with kids snacking too much
That a completely different discussion to the one mentioned here imo.