Well, I am thankful to admit that I did not grow up in poverty, although I do have ancestors that did!
But, when I was about 5 we moved from London to Carlisle, and lived in a small area of semi-detached and detached houses(nothing grand) close to an area of small Victorian terraces and for the first time in my short life I saw a lot of fat women in the local bakery and grocers.
I must have asked some questions, because I was told it was because they were poor and all they could afford to eat was bread spread with margarine, with sugar on it. This would have been in 1949.
Poverty is always relative. In 1949, just after the war, food was still rationed, taxation was still high, no one was well off. I cannot remember wanting for anything, but then our expectations were low, so one didn't actually want anything that much.
ON the other hand the NHS had just started and for many of those poorer families, free medical care was like manna from heaven.