Too many British families are hungry!

Obesity is a far bigger problem than starvation, food is abundantly available, calories and protein for normal growth are cheap.
It social problems and outright neglect are the cause of malnutrition the one cost that is far too high is housing, affordable housing for the poor is not being provided.

Yes there are plenty of feckless parents who will have a home filled with technology, screens etc and will have prioritised that over food but it is not the child’s fault.

Always remember a food bank donation may mean a child goes to bed with a full tummy.

Regarding schools and cooking, when I worked in a school the cookery lessons were sponsored by Tesco, we had Tesco recipe cards, the ingredients were weighed out ready so it was a case of assembling the ingredients.

The recipes were “Baileys Cheesecake” and pizza toppings on a ready made pizza base.
It was a complete waste of time.

Grannyben

Primrose 53, I'm afraid ALL young kids don't get free school meals. They are only given to children in Reception, Year one and Year 2 so children in nursery and, those from Years 3 to 11 don't unless they qualify through the local authorities low income schemes.

Also, whilst I'm aware some breakfast clubs may give free food I think they are In the minority. I know my daughter pays £10 a day for her little one to attend before and after school.

They do, from April, in London. All primary age children will get free lunches at school.

www.london.gov.uk/mayor-continue-funding-groundbreaking-universal-free-school-meals-policy-next-academic-year-2024

[email protected]. Interesting post.

So many things in the UK seem to be dictated by locality. Sweden has had free school dinners funded by local tax for all children for a long time. Provisions started in the early 1900's. The law says dinners must be nutritious: a hot meal, a sallad, bread and butter, milk or water. I suspect it works out cheaper in the long run to roll out free dinners for all.

Dolly17

Seawoozle you are a breath of fresh air on these threads! I don't post often as I'm dismayed by some of the attitudes expressed on GN. Please keep on posting smile

I second this!!!

And unless it has changed, the funding for school meals comes out of capitation thus reducing the amount of money spent on providing educational materials for teaching and learning, repairs, administration, day to day running of schools.
Free school meals for a whole school would require a sizeable chunk of money, plus the breakfast clubs Starmer has promised to provide.

I wish we had school meals here. They never got round to it, the kids have to bring their own or go to the school canteen ( which isn’t cheap). Nothing is free here, they have to buy all the books, writing implements etc even in the state schools. Then there’s the uniforms. It is a lot easier for the young ones in the UK.

eazybee

And unless it has changed, the funding for school meals comes out of capitation thus reducing the amount of money spent on providing educational materials for teaching and learning, repairs, administration, day to day running of schools.
Free school meals for a whole school would require a sizeable chunk of money, plus the breakfast clubs Starmer has promised to provide.

If the state decides to offer free school meals to all pupils then it should fund schools appropriately.

eazybee

And unless it has changed, the funding for school meals comes out of capitation thus reducing the amount of money spent on providing educational materials for teaching and learning, repairs, administration, day to day running of schools.
Free school meals for a whole school would require a sizeable chunk of money, plus the breakfast clubs Starmer has promised to provide.

Free school meals are funded by a separate, ring-fenced grant. In the case of infant pupils, this is given to the schools as a grant. The schools must spend the money on food for eligible children, but can spend it as they wish.

Schools of older children eligible for FSM also receive pupil premium and they could opt to spend it on breakfast or after-school clubs or holiday activities with food provided.

Katie59

Obesity is a far bigger problem than starvation, food is abundantly available, calories and protein for normal growth are cheap.
It social problems and outright neglect are the cause of malnutrition the one cost that is far too high is housing, affordable housing for the poor is not being provided.

Obesity among children specifically is not as bad as the govt paints. However in adults it’s not always down to choices but often education. Sadly it is cheaper to have a large chips from the local chippy sandwiched in white bread, spread with marg, than it is to cook a nutritional meal for two. The bottom line is cuts in everything and rising rents and energy costs, coupled with the benefit cap have left many families and indeed single adults struggling. Many people don’t have freezers, many people don’t have access to cooking facilities, many people struggle with their mental health, many people live in awful, chaotic households with no hope of moving up without lots of support and help. Govt cuts to family centres and community centres means only the most serious neglect gets social care involved and the rest are left to rot or rely, if they are lucky, in family or charity.

Education is the key, work, budgets, cooking, even growing one’s own food, but ACCESS to these things now is nigh on impossible.

growstuff

eazybee
And unless it has changed, the funding for school meals comes out of capitation thus reducing the amount of money spent on providing educational materials for teaching and learning, repairs, administration, day to day running of schools.
Free school meals for a whole school would require a sizeable chunk of money, plus the breakfast clubs Starmer has promised to provide.
Free school meals are funded by a separate, ring-fenced grant. In the case of infant pupils, this is given to the schools as a grant. The schools must spend the money on food for eligible children, but can spend it as they wish.

Schools of older children eligible for FSM also receive pupil premium and they could opt to spend it on breakfast or after-school clubs or holiday activities with food provided.

Indeed they could, if only many schools were not faced with deficit budgets! Most schools, even with ring fenced money and pupil premium, simply cannot afford to run breakfast and after school clubs free of charge. Staff have to be paid to run these clubs and there’s energy costs. It’s a lucky school who can afford to do this now. I speak as an ex primary school Gov, who for 12 years was chair of finance.

SeaWoozle

Oreo

I live in mid Wales. In the middle of nowhere. 10 miles from the nearest big supermarket & 20 miles from somewhere I can buy AFFORDABLE household and DIY stuff and which has more than three charity shops.
I drive. I have my own car.
In this village there are housing association houses in which non drivers live. I know this because they walk most days, rain or shine, to the very expensive "other" supermarket in the village which charges above & beyond insane prices for goods which can be bought significantly cheaper in those shops ten miles away.
We have a bus service which runs twice a day - literally there and back. That's it. If you miss it, you're stuffed.
Tell me how these people are supposed to access affordable amenities, living in a village with minimal public transport and no means of travelling to them?
It's NEVER just about a lack of food. It's about accessibility, affordability and choice.

Lots of people are in a similar position. I live in a rural area and whilst we do have a village shop it is very expensive. I recently popped in to buy a box of suet mix to make dumplings and it was £1.50 MORE than from Tesco.

Most areas have those little community minibuses if your main bus service is bad. Have you enquired?

I drive too and our nearest supermarkets are 10 miles away but you can always have it delivered for a small charge.

Sounds like your Labour government is letting you down. 😉

I agree that accessibility is a big issue.

A friend of mine (years ago) was left by her useless husband to look after three pre-school children. He got half the equity in the house and used it to buy another one to share with his 'other woman', and she was means-tested on her half so had to spend it all before she got help. She was rehoused on a grim council estate miles from the city and a 10 minute drive from the nearest supermarket. She couldn't afford to run a car, so relied on the irregular bus or a taxi. Getting the base meant that she could only buy as much as she could carry home with three children, and a taxi added pounds to her shopping bill. The shop on the estate sold mainly frozen pizzas, tinned food and cheap wine. They had a vegetable section which was largely made up of bagged potatoes, although sometimes wrinkled carrots and a grotty-looking apple were available.

My friend was an excellent cook, and perfectly capable of making soup, or many other nutritious meals - she was also a very good manager of her budget and life in general, but she was really up against it. Even if she got a lift to and from the supermarket she didn't have the disposable income to stock up on reduced items and bulk buys, so however hard she tried life was harder for her than for those in the town. Even the schools were in the town, so whereas her children got the school bus, parents' evenings, concerts, book sales and so on cost her money just to get to. It's things like that that people don't think about unless they've seen how it works.

Primrose53

^Most areas have those little community minibuses if your main bus service is bad. Have you enquired?^

It's just been stopped.

^but you can always have it delivered for a small charge^

Not if people can't afford it!!

🤷

Doodledog

I agree that accessibility is a big issue.

A friend of mine (years ago) was left by her useless husband to look after three pre-school children. He got half the equity in the house and used it to buy another one to share with his 'other woman', and she was means-tested on her half so had to spend it all before she got help. She was rehoused on a grim council estate miles from the city and a 10 minute drive from the nearest supermarket. She couldn't afford to run a car, so relied on the irregular bus or a taxi. Getting the base meant that she could only buy as much as she could carry home with three children, and a taxi added pounds to her shopping bill. The shop on the estate sold mainly frozen pizzas, tinned food and cheap wine. They had a vegetable section which was largely made up of bagged potatoes, although sometimes wrinkled carrots and a grotty-looking apple were available.

My friend was an excellent cook, and perfectly capable of making soup, or many other nutritious meals - she was also a very good manager of her budget and life in general, but she was really up against it. Even if she got a lift to and from the supermarket she didn't have the disposable income to stock up on reduced items and bulk buys, so however hard she tried life was harder for her than for those in the town. Even the schools were in the town, so whereas her children got the school bus, parents' evenings, concerts, book sales and so on cost her money just to get to. It's things like that that people don't think about unless they've seen how it works.

But but but ... apparently, 15 minute cities are part of some control freakery and conspiracy theory. This is precisely why it shouldn't take anybody in a built-up area more than 15 minutes to access basic amenities, such as a supermarket.

Primrose53

I don’t believe it. There are breakfast clubs, after school clubs, food banks, community fridges. Supermarkets doing great deals on fruit and veg. Some cafes giving free kids meals if parents have a meal. Free school meals for ALL young kids. None of which were available when I was a kid.

I saw no evidence during half term that people are hungry. Everywhere I went families were out eating fish and chips, McDonalds, KFC, burgers on market stalls etc.

Some people don’t know how to budget and choose to spend their money on things other than food so they come to rely on handouts and it becomes the norm.

This is so true! All fast food outlets seem to be doing a roaring trade.As well as many cafes. Maybe they,re all used by the rich!😀

When you factor in spending more for less choice(and not being able to bulk buy at all), no transport to take advantage of ebay or online furniture, white goods and other bargain buys and not being able to get bank or 'good' credit it is -

Desperately Expensive To Be Poor!

Delia22

Primrose53

I don’t believe it. There are breakfast clubs, after school clubs, food banks, community fridges. Supermarkets doing great deals on fruit and veg. Some cafes giving free kids meals if parents have a meal. Free school meals for ALL young kids. None of which were available when I was a kid.

I saw no evidence during half term that people are hungry. Everywhere I went families were out eating fish and chips, McDonalds, KFC, burgers on market stalls etc.

Some people don’t know how to budget and choose to spend their money on things other than food so they come to rely on handouts and it becomes the norm.

This is so true! All fast food outlets seem to be doing a roaring trade.As well as many cafes. Maybe they,re all used by the rich!😀

This is nonsense! You see the people who can afford take-aways or cafes. You don't see the people in their own homes, who never go anywhere near a take-away or a cafe.

I firmly believe that some people in this world can't face the thought that someone "less" than them, should be able to go and enjoy themselves and have a treat now and again. If they're wearing false nails, then they're 'wasting their money' and should be spending it on a tin of value baked beans. (As mentioned yesterday, you can buy false nails for £1). If they have a tattoo, they must have starved their kids for a week to fund it. If they wear nice jeans, then once again someone has missed out on dinner. IT MIGHT BE THE ONLY NICE THING THEY HAVE!! I recently bought a Jaeger jacket from a charity shop for £1. Yes, £1!!!

There's a particular phrase I like....

"Don't look down on someone unless you're helping them up"

growstuff you can usually recognise “poor” people by their clothes and footwear. Believe me, they do eat at fast food outlets.

Primrose53

growstuff you can usually recognise “poor” people by their clothes and footwear. Believe me, they do eat at fast food outlets.

I'm actually beginning to wonder if this is a parody account.......

Going back to the original post, how many is ' too many'? It seems to imply there is an acceptable number to go hungry.

I suppose in the same way you can usually recognise well off people, by looking to see if they fit every cliche that's ever been trotted out about them, regardless of if it's true.

MissAdventure

I suppose in the same way you can usually recognise well off people, by looking to see if they fit every cliche that's ever been trotted out about them, regardless of if it's true.

Absolutely! Regardless of my financial status, if anyone should see me right this minute they'd think I'd been sleeping in a hedge for a week! 🤣🤣

Have you ever read such nonsense?!