SPECIAL REPORT: Increased numbers of children going to school hungry

"Primary schools using washing machines to wash children's uniforms, teachers charging parents' phones because they have no electricity at home, and GPs treating kids for rickets. This is the poverty we have found in the UK in 2017."


Teachers in parts of our region say they are seeing more and more examples of children going to school hungry and in uniforms that haven't been washed.

An investigation into child poverty, carried out by this programme, also found that GPs are spotting a rise in cases of diseases like Rickets, which affects bone development and is usually caused by poor diet.

In the second of two special reports, our Political Correspondent Daniel Hewitt went to two schools in Lancashire where staff are struggling to find solutions to the problems of poverty:

Must watch!
Seven minite film on link: http://www.itv.com/news/granada/update/2017-12-12/special-report-increased-numbers-of-children-going-to-school-hungry/

eddie wrote:"Primary schools using washing machines to wash children's uniforms, teachers charging parents' phones because they have no electricity at home, and GPs treating kids for rickets. This is the poverty we have found in the UK in 2017."


Teachers in parts of our region say they are seeing more and more examples of children going to school hungry and in uniforms that haven't been washed.

An investigation into child poverty, carried out by this programme, also found that GPs are spotting a rise in cases of diseases like Rickets, which affects bone development and is usually caused by poor diet.

In the second of two special reports, our Political Correspondent Daniel Hewitt went to two schools in Lancashire where staff are struggling to find solutions to the problems of poverty:

Must watch!
Seven minite film on link: http://www.itv.com/news/granada/update/2017-12-12/special-report-increased-numbers-of-children-going-to-school-hungry/

http://reason.com/archives/2017/11/25/british-think-tank-report-says-eu-food-p

eddie wrote:"Primary schools using washing machines to wash children's uniforms, teachers charging parents' phones because they have no electricity at home, and GPs treating kids for rickets. This is the poverty we have found in the UK in 2017."


Teachers in parts of our region say they are seeing more and more examples of children going to school hungry and in uniforms that haven't been washed.

An investigation into child poverty, carried out by this programme, also found that GPs are spotting a rise in cases of diseases like Rickets, which affects bone development and is usually caused by poor diet.

In the second of two special reports, our Political Correspondent Daniel Hewitt went to two schools in Lancashire where staff are struggling to find solutions to the problems of poverty:

Must watch!
Seven minite film on link: http://www.itv.com/news/granada/update/2017-12-12/special-report-increased-numbers-of-children-going-to-school-hungry/

Rickets in this day and age isn't caused by poverty.  It's caused by lazy parenting and ignorance.

Can't afford food and electricity but can afford mobile phones???

Priorities are all wrong

IN this case it's rubbish parents who are to blame, too fucking idle or pissed/stoned to get out of bed and feed their kids !

Mobile phones are cheap, it's food that keeps rising in cost.

Ben Reilly wrote:Mobile phones are cheap, it's food that keeps rising in cost.

And mobile phones are unecessary, when you can use tha money to pay for food or wash your childs clothes.

Just like new clothes for themselves are not required every week.

Nor Sky TV required.

Nor is a new i-phone every six weeks.

Nor is texting and phoning people 24/7 racking up huge phone bills.

There is no excuse in this day and age why people should not have their kids fed and clothes washed.

What the reailty is with many people today, is that they are inherantly irresponsible with their money and live beyond their means.

What really is appalling, is how we even class it as poverty, when its a disgrace to call it poverty, next to where children around the world live in real poverty.

blimey didge...I agree....

Lord Foul wrote:blimey didge...I agree....

Ben Reilly wrote:Mobile phones are cheap, it's food that keeps rising in cost.

you'd be surprised.   If you're prepared to shop around, instead of getting it all in the supermarket, you can still buy food at cheap prices.   Here in Manchester, we have a plethora of Asian stores that sell good quality veg at really low prices,half the price of the supermarkets,  but you have to be prepared to shop around.    90 Morrisons Vitamin D tabs costs £2.50.   Not exactly going to break the bank when you consider a packet of fags here costs upwards of £10.

If you haven't experienced poverty, nobody can really explain it to you. Except maybe Pulp. Listen and learn Common People.

Ben Reilly wrote:If you haven't experienced poverty, nobody can really explain it to you. Except maybe Pulp. Listen and learn Common People.

And how very patronizing.

I have come from growing up in a large working class family where we had very little, but there was always food on the table.

My parents did not waste their money on drink, going out or buying things they could not afford.
They placed raising their children above everything else and that is what every parent should do, when they decide to have children.

Ben Reilly wrote:If you haven't experienced poverty, nobody can really explain it to you. Except maybe Pulp. Listen and learn Common People.

Here's my experience of poverty in the seventies.     Having to feed my  baby on 6p tins of Carnation milk because that's all I could afford because the DSS cheque was late and I had no milk.   Having to rob the meter at the end of each week because I had to feed my child and my money was late.   Having to chop up furniture to burn in order to keep myself and my child warm.  Having to live in a hovel with black damp up the walls that gave me bronchitis and infestations that would make you sick to your stomach.   Scraping ice off the INSIDE of the windows.  No colour TV for me and my kid.   No washing machine, no fridge, no regular hot water.  Shared bathroom and hot water cistern with two other families.   Having to scrub 30 terry nappies  by hand - no Pampers for me.   Going down to the Housing every single week to  beg for a council house.   Having to dress my kid from the charity shop.  Trawling round shops for the cheapest food.   Grinding up food by hand to feed my baby...no convenience baby food for me and my kid.  Chocolate, cakes, sweets, crisps, takeaways?  What the fuck were those?   

 I've also been homeless.   It made me so ill I developed an infection in my mouth that crawled halfway up my face.  Doctor told me it was stress and malnutrition induced.   I was 17 years old.   

Family allowance back then was a measly £1.50 a week compared to the £20.70 you get now for your first child.   £1.50 back then is  worth £8.80 now, a shortfall of £11.90.   

So, nobody is going to tell me that people today can't afford to give their children nutritious diets that can be cooked from scratch by getting off your bum and shopping around.   I lived on the bones of my fucking arse, and my child didn't have rickets.

 There was no housing benefit in the 1970s.  I got £12.50  per week income support.  My rent was £5 a week.    So all I was left with to feed, clothe, heat, electric meter, etc  for the two of us was around £7.50  per week.  Today's equivalent of a max of £44 to live off for a single mother and child.   You got sent a cheque each week in those days...no standing orders.  So, if the post got delayed or lost, you were pretty much fucked and it happened often.

Life was very very hard back then.   To this day, whenever I get into a hot bath, I feel incredibly grateful and indulged...because having a cold or tepid bath  was a daily thing for me in those days.

Didge wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:If you haven't experienced poverty, nobody can really explain it to you. Except maybe Pulp. Listen and learn Common People.

And how very patronizing.

I have come from growing up in a large working class family where we had very little, but there was always food on the table.

My parents did not waste their money on drink, going out or buying things they could not afford.
They placed raising their children above everything else and that is what every parent should do, when they decide to have children.

Me too.  My poor mum used to tramp all over town on foot buying the best bargains so we could eat  a balanced diet.   We never had sweets or desserts and we filled up with bread and butter and marmite if we were hungry when we came in from school.   But we ate well, because my mum cooked it all from scratch and was a war baby  herself.   We weren't allowed to leave anything on our plates, and we weren't allowed to be fussy.  We got what we were given.  My mother, thank God, was an excellent cook.    Each Saturday she'd buy a bag of mixed chocolate covered nuts and raisins and used to measure them out by weight to each of us to avoid fights about who had more.   We never had takeaways and we never ate out.  But we were all healthy and slim.

HoratioTarr wrote:

Didge wrote:

And how very patronizing.

I have come from growing up in a large working class family where we had very little, but there was always food on the table.

My parents did not waste their money on drink, going out or buying things they could not afford.
They placed raising their children above everything else and that is what every parent should do, when they decide to have children.

Me too.  My poor mum used to tramp all over town on foot buying the best bargains so we could eat  a balanced diet.   We never had sweets or desserts and we filled up with bread and butter and marmite if we were hungry when we came in from school.   But we ate well, because my mum cooked it all from scratch and was a war baby  herself.   We weren't allowed to leave anything on our plates, and we weren't allowed to be fussy.  We got what we were given.  My mother, thank God, was an excellent cook.    Each Saturday she'd buy a bag of mixed chocolate covered nuts and raisins and used to measure them out by weight to each of us to avoid fights about who had more.   We never had takeaways and we never ate out.  But we were all healthy and slim.

Ditto me too. You knew what day it was by what you had on your plate and fill up on bread and butter, everyone I knew had bread and butter with everything some even ate it with cooked dinner. Furniture was 'pre loved' Clothes were handme downs or from the jumble sale, although we were lucky because we had a new set of clothes kept for best at Christmas and Easter, only because my mother did other peoples washing and cleaning and paid the travelling shop this money every week to have an account if stuff was needed. I had a nurses outfit one Christmas my mother had made it, quite authentic, another year it was a Zoro outfit she copied from seeing the programme, it was a tutu another year although she did have to buy the ballet shoes to go with it and a cowgirl outfit my father helped with that, he made a fringed vest, skirt and gauntlets out of faux leather he'd got from somewhere. He worked all day on an estate as a woodsman, summer doing extra hours if there was a fire in the wood or the forestry next to the estate, they'd be lent out by the estate, he'd come home from work, eat his 'tea' and go and do odd jobs, digging other peoples gardens usually for a share of the veg, if that's what they were growing. All my father's money went on rent, coal, electric, rates and the other food, oh and the dog and radio license, luckily our animals were healthy, but if they weren't there was the travelling vet from PDSA. It was hard times for parents and many had less than us but it was good times for us children, no one had anything to be envious of and we had such freedom. (late 1950's)

smelly-bandit wrote:Can't afford food and electricity but can afford mobile phones???

Priorities are all wrong

You are a good heartless republican asshole.

Lurker wrote:

smelly-bandit wrote:Can't afford food and electricity but can afford mobile phones???

Priorities are all wrong

You are a good heartless republican asshole.

HoratioTarr wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:If you haven't experienced poverty, nobody can really explain it to you. Except maybe Pulp. Listen and learn Common People.

Here's my experience of poverty in the seventies.     Having to feed my  baby on 6p tins of Carnation milk because that's all I could afford because the DSS cheque was late and I had no milk.   Having to rob the meter at the end of each week because I had to feed my child and my money was late.   Having to chop up furniture to burn in order to keep myself and my child warm.  Having to live in a hovel with black damp up the walls that gave me bronchitis and infestations that would make you sick to your stomach.   Scraping ice off the INSIDE of the windows.  No colour TV for me and my kid.   No washing machine, no fridge, no regular hot water.  Shared bathroom and hot water cistern with two other families.   Having to scrub 30 terry nappies  by hand - no Pampers for me.   Going down to the Housing every single week to  beg for a council house.   Having to dress my kid from the charity shop.  Trawling round shops for the cheapest food.   Grinding up food by hand to feed my baby...no convenience baby food for me and my kid.  Chocolate, cakes, sweets, crisps, takeaways?  What the fuck were those?   

 I've also been homeless.   It made me so ill I developed an infection in my mouth that crawled halfway up my face.  Doctor told me it was stress and malnutrition induced.   I was 17 years old.   

Family allowance back then was a measly £1.50 a week compared to the £20.70 you get now for your first child.   £1.50 back then is  worth £8.80 now, a shortfall of £11.90.   

So, nobody is going to tell me that people today can't afford to give their children nutritious diets that can be cooked from scratch by getting off your bum and shopping around.   I lived on the bones of my fucking arse, and my child didn't have rickets.

 There was no housing benefit in the 1970s.  I got £12.50  per week income support.  My rent was £5 a week.    So all I was left with to feed, clothe, heat, electric meter, etc  for the two of us was around £7.50  per week.  Today's equivalent of a max of £44 to live off for a single mother and child.   You got sent a cheque each week in those days...no standing orders.  So, if the post got delayed or lost, you were pretty much fucked and it happened often.

Life was very very hard back then.   To this day, whenever I get into a hot bath, I feel incredibly grateful and indulged...because having a cold or tepid bath  was a daily thing for me in those days.

Poverty today in this country is nothing compared to the poverty you (and I, and our parents) endured.
Even as recently as the late 60's early 70's before the mass slum clearance pre high rise monstrosities were built, ...houses not fit for rats to live in were the norm for many.
No hot water, no electric upstairs, dodgy wiring downstairs, crumbling outside lavatory, rat infested cellars where coal was stored which was the only heating available...inside toilets, bathrooms, running hot water were a thing of the future.

No one wants those days to return...but I do wonder what is classed as real 'poverty' nowadays.

Hey Syl good to see you back

Yes I remember as a kid having tin baths, no heating, but we were used to that, it was the norm.

A lot of people today think they're hard up if they don't have a mobile phone.

HoratioTarr wrote:

Didge wrote:

And how very patronizing.

I have come from growing up in a large working class family where we had very little, but there was always food on the table.

My parents did not waste their money on drink, going out or buying things they could not afford.
They placed raising their children above everything else and that is what every parent should do, when they decide to have children.

Me too.  My poor mum used to tramp all over town on foot buying the best bargains so we could eat  a balanced diet.   We never had sweets or desserts and we filled up with bread and butter and marmite if we were hungry when we came in from school.   But we ate well, because my mum cooked it all from scratch and was a war baby  herself.   We weren't allowed to leave anything on our plates, and we weren't allowed to be fussy.  We got what we were given.  My mother, thank God, was an excellent cook.    Each Saturday she'd buy a bag of mixed chocolate covered nuts and raisins and used to measure them out by weight to each of us to avoid fights about who had more.   We never had takeaways and we never ate out.  But we were all healthy and slim.

+1

I think too many people place more on material objects than they do for looking after their children.

Food should always come first.

Very interesting post

I remember asking another mum once, "What are you making for dinner?"

Her reply was to tell me that she wouldn't bother seeing as she was trying to lose weight and that her son had 'already eaten a meal at school'.

Says it all.

Vintage wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:


Me too.  My poor mum used to tramp all over town on foot buying the best bargains so we could eat  a balanced diet.   We never had sweets or desserts and we filled up with bread and butter and marmite if we were hungry when we came in from school.   But we ate well, because my mum cooked it all from scratch and was a war baby  herself.   We weren't allowed to leave anything on our plates, and we weren't allowed to be fussy.  We got what we were given.  My mother, thank God, was an excellent cook.    Each Saturday she'd buy a bag of mixed chocolate covered nuts and raisins and used to measure them out by weight to each of us to avoid fights about who had more.   We never had takeaways and we never ate out.  But we were all healthy and slim.

Ditto me too. You knew what day it was by what you had on your plate and fill up on bread and butter, everyone I knew had bread and butter with everything some even ate it with cooked dinner. Furniture was 'pre loved' Clothes were handme downs or from the jumble sale, although we were lucky because we had a new set of clothes kept for best at Christmas and Easter, only because my mother did other peoples washing and cleaning and paid the travelling shop this money every week to have an account if stuff was needed. I had a nurses outfit one Christmas my mother had made it, quite authentic, another year it was a Zoro outfit she copied from seeing the programme, it was a tutu another year although she did have to buy the ballet shoes to go with it and a cowgirl outfit my father helped with that, he made a fringed vest, skirt and gauntlets out of faux leather he'd got from somewhere. He worked all day on an estate as a woodsman, summer doing extra hours if there was a fire in the wood or the forestry next to the estate, they'd be lent out by the estate, he'd come home from work, eat his 'tea' and go and do odd jobs, digging other peoples gardens usually for a share of the veg, if that's what they were growing. All my father's money went on rent, coal, electric, rates and the other food, oh and the dog and radio license, luckily our animals were healthy, but if they weren't there was the travelling vet from PDSA. It was hard times for parents and many had less than us but it was good times for us children, no one had anything to be envious of and we had such freedom. (late 1950's)

My ex husband was three years older than me, and his tales of poverty were even worse.   They had the electric meter in the cellar which was permanently flooded.  So they had this little raft that they sailed across to put a shilling in the meter whilst holding a burning rolled up newspaper!  



Their mum was Irish and used to use the same pan to boil up the porridge AND the stew each day, so every morning the porridge was full of bones!

His dad used to tell them tales about how the only hot lunch he ever had was a beef oxo in a mug!

HoratioTarr wrote:

Vintage wrote:

Ditto me too. You knew what day it was by what you had on your plate and fill up on bread and butter, everyone I knew had bread and butter with everything some even ate it with cooked dinner. Furniture was 'pre loved' Clothes were handme downs or from the jumble sale, although we were lucky because we had a new set of clothes kept for best at Christmas and Easter, only because my mother did other peoples washing and cleaning and paid the travelling shop this money every week to have an account if stuff was needed. I had a nurses outfit one Christmas my mother had made it, quite authentic, another year it was a Zoro outfit she copied from seeing the programme, it was a tutu another year although she did have to buy the ballet shoes to go with it and a cowgirl outfit my father helped with that, he made a fringed vest, skirt and gauntlets out of faux leather he'd got from somewhere. He worked all day on an estate as a woodsman, summer doing extra hours if there was a fire in the wood or the forestry next to the estate, they'd be lent out by the estate, he'd come home from work, eat his 'tea' and go and do odd jobs, digging other peoples gardens usually for a share of the veg, if that's what they were growing. All my father's money went on rent, coal, electric, rates and the other food, oh and the dog and radio license, luckily our animals were healthy, but if they weren't there was the travelling vet from PDSA. It was hard times for parents and many had less than us but it was good times for us children, no one had anything to be envious of and we had such freedom. (late 1950's)

My ex husband was three years older than me, and his tales of poverty were even worse.   They had the electric meter in the cellar which was permanently flooded.  So they had this little raft that they sailed across to put a shilling in the meter whilst holding a burning rolled up newspaper!  



Their mum was Irish and used to use the same pan to boil up the porridge AND the stew each day, so every morning the porridge was full of bones!

His dad used to tell them tales about how the only hot lunch he ever had was a beef oxo in a mug!

The first house I lived in, which was later condemned. As it was unsafe to live in due to many constructual issues, which my family rented had no central heating. I remember the couple of paraffin heaters we had, that stank to high heaven. Where in them days you never had duvets, but blankets.

If you were cold, you put on more clothes and to be honest, being a big family, we were so active, we run around like lunatics and never felt cold. 5 boys sharing one room out of 11 children and you can imagine we would never go to sleep. Whether it be laughing, arguing, making mischief or just listening to stories.

I loved every second of it, as it made us all very close to each other and there was nothing we would do for each other, even if we fought like cats and dogs.

I would never change it for the world and it brought us all closer together. We did not even have a tv until I was about 8 and I was the second youngest. When we sat down to dinner and espically on a Saturday night when it was pasta. We constantly talked and laughed and joked.

My fav on the rare Sunday evenings when we had salad, with ritz buiscuits with cottage cheeze, baby gherkins, olives, cheddar cheeze, dates etc, made us feel like millionares. Such plain food, made us feel amazing. Even if this only happened at Christmas and Easter. The Turkey at Christmas, seem to last for a week and we never got sick of it. Even though we knew, it cost my parents a fortune.

You really do not know how lucky you are, untill you know how little you have and only then begin to appreciate it.

You know, money doesn't buy happiness and despite a lot of you on here saying you were poor, you still sound lime you were loved.
And that's all that really matters, right?

eddie wrote:You know, money doesn't buy happiness and despite a lot of you on here saying you were poor, you still sound lime you were loved.
And that's all that really matters, right?

Well for my part, we were loved and no amount of money can buy love.

Having said that, they ensured we did well at school to better our lives.

As much as we appreicated what we had, they knew we could better our lives and that nobody should have to struggle that way. Hence why, from the earliest ages, they taught us how to read and learn maths.

They knew they were born into a struggle, both of them, even more so my father, with the siege of Malta. To the point he was told to leave by his parents at 14, to joind his brother in Canada. He did not want to leave but wanted to help his family, where he sent home half his money. He taught me how to appreciate food and never turn my nose up at anything offered to me.

Sadly, when people are born better off, they fail to understand how to really appreciate something, when they do not have to struggle for this. We are at our best, when we have to strive and struggle, as its a sad reality of life and how we then appreciate it more.

Now more people become depressed and are unhappy, because many things are provided for them on a plate.

They do not know hardship and thus never really understand how to appreciate something.

I think that is why those most successful, who were formely poor, make for the best business people.
This is why it now pains me, that we now use a multitude of gadgets as a means to entertain children, when parents fail children by not spending more queality time with them.

Parents have more time for children and what do they do?

They negate the reason why they had children in the first place, failing to understand it is a struggle and then think they are hard done by and that society owes them a favour for having children. That is the wrong mentality.

You have children knowingly, that it will be hard. Not think society owes you everything

Society is sadly becoming more and more selfish, because many have not faced real hardship. As ask anyone who has, as they will tell you, they more than anyone will strive to help people better their lives.

                 

You peeps can blame those slack-arsed parents as much as you like...

And brag about how "we woz so poor,  we trudged ten miles in bare feet through solid snow in winter,  and over broken glass in summer,  to get to skool ! ",  until the cows come home..

But those neglected kids will still be going to school without breakfast, and without freshly-laundered shirts.

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:                  

You peeps can blame those slack-arsed parents as much as you like...

And brag about how "we woz so poor,  we trudged ten miles in bare feet through solid snow in winter,  and over broken glass in summer,  to get to skool ! ",  until the cows come home..

But those neglected kids will still be going to school without breakfast, and without freshly-laundered shirts.

They will indeed, but again, but what lesson are you teaching here, when parents have to be continually bailed out?

Are they ever learning responsibility?

Sadly no, because people have a concious and never want to see children suffer, when they never should and yet sadly a number of parents allow their children to suffer, as they place material objects over that of food.

magica wrote:Hey Syl good to see you back

Yes I remember as a kid having tin baths, no heating, but we were used to that, it was the norm.

A lot of people today think they're hard up if they don't have a mobile phone.

Thanks Mags, its always nice to be back too.....even if the temp has changed from 26c to -6.

I agree that poverty nowadays is classed as different things by different people.
Real poverty is a lot different to parent neglect or not being able to keep up with the Jones's.

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:                  

You peeps can blame those slack-arsed parents as much as you like...

And brag about how "we woz so poor,  we trudged ten miles in bare feet through solid snow in winter,  and over broken glass in summer,  to get to skool ! ",  until the cows come home..

But those neglected kids will still be going to school without breakfast, and without freshly-laundered shirts.

And who do you think sends them out with no breakfast or clean clothes, you clown?