Too poor to eat properly

Agree completely with nonanan2. And couldn't disagree more with eazybee - we have moved on since our grandmothers (1900s) were looking after families, we have undergone what we call a technological revolution, and we have rampant globalisation - the idea that young people live lives that have any comparison with those of our grandparents (over a century ago) is just nonsense.
People who work unsocial hours cannot just switch their cooking responsibilities to another time of day, by working unsocial hours their body rhythms are changed and they're actually more tired. Young people in London don't own their own homes, let alone cabbage patches where they can 'grow their own' even if they had time. Life for millions of young Londoners is unrecognisable to people in their 60s+ who live in the provinces. And this is a huge problem because people who have never spent hours commuting, had to live in flats with shared cooking resources, and paid exorbitant rents to do so, have no idea of how bad life can be and it's all so easy to brand such people as lazy. Good proverb about walking a mile in my moccasins before you criticise - those who use food banks have no alternative and until there is a real appreciation in this country by people who have it all, of how those who have nothing survive, we'll never get to a situation where we can eradicate the need for food banks. Sure, Domestic Science and Home Economics on the school curriculum is important, but national politics are the root of this problem.

Three years ago 6 colleagues and myself took the £1 challenge, to feed yourself including drinks for just £30 per month. It was not easy but we all did it. We had porridge made with water and just a splash of milk or value bread toast for breakfast. We all shopped late just before supermarket closed to pick up bargain meals. If no bargains then we ate cheese toasty. I blended cheap tin of tomatoes with a few lentils and dried herbs and ate as a pasta sauce and stretched it to two days meal. I lost 3 lb and money we were sponsored for and saved on usual food shop went to food bank. I feel sorry for small children who's parents may not be able to stretch food due to depression, addiction or lack of skills. I really wish government would just give all school children a free hot meal regardless of their age. If we leave EU some of the money saved should be used to guarantee this.

There are several issues that contribute to this situation. Not only people on UC but people on zero hour contracts, and others on very low wages. Some people have to choose between eating and heating, and this is the case in many young people as well as older people. Food banks can only provide so much food for people who qualify. You have to have a referral for it, and are given limited amounts of food per visit. There will always be people who are better at budgeting than others, but even so, with the best will in the world if you have little or not much food in the cupboard you are obviously going to struggle and and get into difficulties.
I have also seen various TV programmes (ie) Jamie Oliver in a town in Yorkshire trying to show people how to cook healthily and cheaply instead of living of takeaways, and also read Jack Monroe's book from our library, in which she documents her struggle and how she came up with the recipes she did to simply survive.
Someone above has mentioned a school in Morecambe, well two schools there also provide laundry facilities for some of the parents who are desperately struggling, to allow them to bring their children's uniforms in and wash them, as they have not the money to top up their pre- payment meters and wash them at home.
I was born and brought up in the north and we knew a lot of poverty, even though our parents were taught to cook basics there was not always the money for the ingredients and had to be very inventive and creative to put meals on the table. We had gas meters and electric meters - one took shillings the other pennies. I can remember then, some neighbours lending each other small amounts of money to put in the meters and giving it back on payday. Lending cups of sugar etc was not unheard of then either. I think it is a lot harder these days because living standards as such have risen over the generations, also not so much community spirit as back then when people did seem to be more neighbourly and help each other out.

I am not sure growing your own veg is that economically helpful. Perhaps it is my poor gardening skills. Buying veg from markets especially at the end of the day can be cheap.

Also remember that a lot of flats don't have a gas point in the kitchen, and when they do, gas cookers are more expensive than electric to buy and fit. So many people on lower incomes are stuck with electric cookers - the price of cooking a meal from typical cheap cuts etc is quite high on electric. Meals you can throw in the microwave can be a lot cheaper overall, and most supermarkets do a very cheap range of ready meals, that are comparable in cost to buying ingredients.

And I neither drink nor smoke.

I don't have sky and haven't had a holiday for ten years.
Phone, yes, because I had it before my current poverty, but mostly because it is needed to access the benefit system most of the time.
If you phone up, you are often given a recorded message telling you to go to www... then you're cut off.

When my mother left my father she had two jobs to keep my sister and me. We were pretty poor. Probably none of the food we ate would pass muster today but we were fine on it. We had things like:-

-a Vesta curry for one between three
-two fish fingers each and some beans
-fried mackerel which was cheap
-pork belly, cheap and fatty

and so on. My cousins whose mother lived on benefits in a council house used to have fish and chips and it was a measure of how much poorer we were that mum couldn't afford them.

My mother, though, worked, paid her own rent and none of us would think of taking the entitlements she could have claimed like free school meals. A certain self respect saw us through without losing our cheerfulness and optimism.

What changed things for us was that my sister and I did reasonably well at school and we became teachers. I had a brilliant cookery teacher at school and learned to make nice meals with the ingredients mum could afford.

Looking back, though, mum smoked and drank (one of her jobs was in a pub) and I reckon she could have bought a Ferrari with what she spent on them over the years.

sarah are you suggesting the big food manufactures make the own brand/private label food? I used to work for the biggest food company and they didn't make any of these products. Don't know about others though.

Must admit that I haven’t read through all the messages yet so apologies if this has been covered, but, ‘though I feel very sorry for those who are genuinely poor, I wonder just how many of them have the latest phones and gadgets. If I can’t afford something I don’t buy it and that goes for things like Sky, Smart Phone, holidays etc., yes these things do make life more pleasant, but you should ‘cut your suit according to your cloth’. There I’ve said my piece.

My ex-brother in law by marriage used to feed the 6 kids they had (at the time) and they never received anything fresh- it was whatever he could heat for 25 minutes in an oven. When two of the boys came to stay with me for a mini break they had never seen the brown, lumpy stuff called mince before. they also did not recognise a chicken leg-unbelievable.

When I went to visit I would be given a pie for lunch and a sausage roll for supper- yuk, neither healthy nor appetising.

Of course there will always be 'those'. Those who are too idle to bother, those who have no idea what healthy eating even is, those who couldn't care less.
That is not everyone though, and its a shame to tar everyone with the same brush, I think.

MissAdventureTaking the trouble to find how to give yourself and family nourishment on a low income is not difficult.
Supermarket 'own brands' are cheaper than major companies and lets face it who provides these 'own brands' You don't have to be a superman/woman to work that one out.
There will always be those who would rather buy 'frozen nuggets and chips' than take the trouble to look around the shelves and freezer cabinets to see how you can do it yourself with 'own brand' products to suit both 'veggies and vegans'.

Ah, Margs you must mean the Ian Duncan Smith who claimed £85 expenses for his breakfast.

I haven't had pilchards for years and I like them. They are going on my shopping list.

There is a scheme where those who can't manage their gardens agree to someone else using it and enjoying the produce but I don't remember what it is called.

I had to buy biscuits for some workmen coming to our house and was amazed at how cheap they are, one pack was 28p and others were 2 for 80p. Supermarket offers seem to be mainly on the unhealthy food.

Its not just the poor or uneducated who can't cook. Not so long ago I was in a boarding school being shown round by the principal. He told us they were joining forces with a local day school (private) to build a kitchen to teach the seniors how to make tea and coffee and cook simple meals. I suggested that was the parents' job and he said the parents didn't teach them. Surely parents should take responsibility? I taught all mine to cook, to iron (not very successfully) and to look after their property. Some things they are better at than me and some not as good. However, they all cook their own food from scratch and they all eat healthily and economically. They do this so they have money to spend on other things. Colleagues in the same jobs don't and complain about all the things they can't afford.

Usual stuff about schools teaching kids how to do different things. There really isn't enough time on the timetable to teach all the other new initiatives.

Head on the TV this morning saying they didn't have a Food teacher, wanted one but couldn't afford it from the budget so some teachers were being taken from other subjects for a few lessons a week (which btw places disproportionate stresses in other areas that I wont go into).

Other schools with no Food specialists have converted their Food rooms into ordinary classrooms.

Finally in 1989, the National Curriculum decided what should be taught. Food, especially teaching cooking, was 'downgraded'.

I was watching Back in Time for School on TV last night, and reminiscing about the Domestic Science classes I did at school. We learned to put a nappy on a doll, and had a room where we had to learn how to clean the floors and furniture - and to wash up properly! But most importantly we learned to cook simple basic meals, about different cuts of meat, about proteins, carbs etc - such useful stuff that has served me well ever since. It is a real shame that there is now a huge emphasis on exams and league tables which seems to preclude schools being allowed time in the curriculum to teach the practical life skills that are so necessary. For boys these days as well of course!

Talk's cheap, as my mum used to say..

The grand architect of Universal Credit, Iain Duncan-Smith, once notoriously claimed he could very well live on £53.00p per week - what on earth was he trying to tell those who actually have to?

So, come one Duncy - you said that some years ago but have you not got around to doing it yet?

Well, that's just one person.
There are probably people who would welcome help and have nobody to give it.

In an ideal world the older generation would teach the younger ones how to cook. I'm not sure if they want to learn though. I heard of a young man who declared "I don't eat house food". When asked what house food was, he said anything made in the house, he only ate takeaways!

We married at the end of the sixties and our children were born in the 70s. It was a struggle but we always managed to have a good meal 3 times a day.
Also work wasn’t a problem, you never had a problem getting a job.. we didn’t claim anything, even though my husband was on a low wage at that time.
Times have changed it’s not easy, food is extremely expensive, and so is rent, fuel and a mortgage if you have one.
We have been able to manage because of the early days of being careful.
Nowadays it’s harder.

Or more, by the way.
I was stating what I know my upstairs neighbour paid out each month on a two bed ex council flat.

A portion of rent, of course, if people are living in privately rented accommodation.
That can mean 300 pounds a month shortfall which the tenant has to 'top up'.

Just to clarify, I am one year away from receiving my pension. I live on ESA due to a chronic long term debilitating illness that means I, unfortunately, cannot work.
Not living in a rose tinted bubble it is not families living entirely on benefits who are in poverty, (unless substance, alcohol, gambling or massive debt problems exist), but those where one or both parents work and receive £1 or £2 above the limit to qualify for benefits, or singles trying to exist on £75 a week.
A family fully on benefits can have upwards of £350 a week income, rent and Council tax paid, (CT - 80% paid).
My income of £254.30 per fortnight pays all my bills, provides all my, fresh food, (I cook from scratch) with enough left to enjoy the odd coffee or lunch out. My brother, on £75 a week,, paying the same bills, barely manages and often uses the food banks, community kitchen or the family to keep going. For him it's a case of - pay the bills or buy decent food. His shopping consists of economy tins, cheapest/reduced items and ready meals. It's no wonder he's severely depressed. He isn't working because ge suffer a minor heart attack 5 years ago and employers won't take the risk of employing him, (he's been told at job interviews or in letters, that he's too high a risk!).
Poverty isn't about being on benefits, unless you're single, it's about how well you manage, or not, your income, your expectations and how willing you are to forgo the latest gadgets and technology in favour of a warm home and decent food.