Through various events I had three years of contact with a woman in her forties and her children, aged 23, 13, and eight month old baby. Older boy was sent to Grandmas years ago.
This experience has stopped me from wanting to donate to food banks.
I want to believe the food is essential to people who are in a bad position at this part of their lives.
This experience has stopped me.
(A social worker and various authorities were involved)
She was receiving food from various food banks after the school voiced concern over her 13yr old daughter.
She was of the opinion that if you could get food free then it meant more money for her and her boyfriend.
She lived in absolute chaos and filth.
Benefit money was spent on cigarettes for her and her 26yr old boyfriend. She would send him money to buy cigarettes.
Boyfriend lived miles away and she would send him money for petrol to try and persuade him to visit her and his eight month old child.
To add to the filth kittens were being born constantly and the smell was once so bad that a visit was abandonded due to my eyes stinging and not being able to breathe.
The beds were filthy . Walls black with damp.
She squandered her money on the main focus of her whole existence , the boyfriend. He turned up every five or six weeks.
The teenage daughter was 16 on my last visit, she had grown through her teens with no provision of clothes or even basic hygiene essentials.
Currently the daughter has left home and is living in an isolated area with a known drug dealer.
The attitude to the food was that you grabbed anything going free and you had more money without feeding the children yourself.
Army horses loose on London streets