Over this last
week I’ve joined in with many conversations about food parcels given for children’s
lunches.
Parents have
been sharing their disappointment and outrage in what they’ve been given to supplement
lunches whilst the country is back in lockdown.
This topic leaves me quite conflicted.
7 years ago I
was living in poverty.
At the time a simple action left us in that position.
I invited a friend
from church, who was currently living in sheltered accommodation, to come live with
me. My health had a slight decline and I thought him moving in would benefit; I
have someone to help and he has somewhere to live.
As he moved in
we adjusted our financial situation. I was in receipt of disability living allowance,
housing benefit and employment support allowance.
Having an extra
“body” changed the rates received on the latter 2.
However, the
friendship broke down. Living together showed a different side of the person I knew.
There were non-stop arguments, constant political debate where I was continually
forced to listen to radical far-right opinions and a high level of mixed discriminative
abuse and mockery.
Subsequently,
I kicked them out.
Then the benefits
stopped.
Within the UK
you can add people to your benefits. Usually their income or social economic position
lowers the individual benefit. However, taking people off of the benefits would
mean a readjustment that could, potentially, increase the amount of money you get.
When that happens
all benefits get stopped so a governing body can determine if that’s acceptable.
This can take between 3 to 6 months to resolve.
Being on benefits
is hard financially. Life was already tough and I, like many on benefits, wasn’t
lucky enough to be sat on a savings nest egg.
Once the money
stops coming in you become increasingly aware of the payments going out.
You have to split
what money you do have between paying utilities and “non-essential” items.
You find that
you reject one bill so you can afford to pay the other. You push every red payment
notice to its limit. You wait until they cut you off to pay.
Everything non-essential
stops. TV subscriptions, Internet packages and mobile phones.
You calculate
the difference in having no heating verses wearing several layers. I would go to
bed dressed in long johns, joggers and 2 jumpers; it kept me warm and stopped me
paying what I couldn’t afford.
Food and shopping
changed.
No luxuries.
No treats. You stand at every section, in every aisle and you calculate the amount
of product verses the price and quality. Even if the supermarkets own toilet roll
is like stiff tracing paper and cuts you, that is the choice you HAVE to make.
I got to the
point where I was using Food Banks. I couldn’t have survived without them. That,
in itself, was hard.
Of course, that
moment and transition is a hard pride pill to swallow. Do you go hungry again or
do you ask for help? Sooner or later the pressure of living makes you choose.
But the actual
process of getting that help is tedious. You have to prove that you tick “appropriate
need” to get the support. Which, if you were like me and didn’t realise, is truly
heart-breaking when you turn up, desperately in need after weeks and days with no
money, food or energy to only be told to come back next week with the correct “in
date" paperwork.
The little food
you have becomes meals for your children. You starve yourself because that means
they get another meal, another day. You wait until they’re out the room and you
pick up the last remnants of their dinner to eat yourself because that’s a better
option than starving another day or scraping away the smallest amount of leftovers.
“Meals” consist
of ingredients you’d never conceive to put together. They’re not meals. They’re
2 items of food masquerading as meals.
Half a tin of
baked beans and 2 handfuls of pasta.
Broccoli, gravy
and a slice of bread.
A sliced sausage,
a handful of pasta and some sweetcorn.
It didn’t matter.
Food was food. Hunger was hunger. My children needed feeding.
Many people didn’t
realise. Even now when I’ve spoken about it people question why I didn’t ask them
for help but what do you say?
How do you tell
someone how low and desperate you are?
It took me 3
years to get back to an “above poverty" standard of living despite benefits
being restored after 5 months. Those months of covering and pushing debt around creates a long consequential echo.
Things are now
better. We still have the same benefits as before. Life can still be hard. We
still find ways to make our food last when we can’t quite cover the remaining days
at the end of each month but we’re no longer there.
So, after all
of that, we get to these school lunches.
Are they good
enough? No. Not at all.
Do they represent
the financial equivalent that each child should have per week? No. Not at all.
I could, in fact,
make that money last for more than 2 weeks if I went shopping on it. I think a lot
of people could.
What the government
and the private companies are doing is ridiculous and criminal.
However, I am
seeing people with the above photos, discussing how it isn’t suitable as their child
doesn’t eat half of the food because they’re fussy.
I’ve seen people
complain about food “almost” being out of date so they can’t use it.
I’ve seen someone saying “I hope people don’t rely on them.”
This I have
a massive issue with.
This will be
someone’s lifeline.
Food that’s
almost out of date can be cooked, frozen and then eaten on the day. Food can be
split, have smaller portions and mixed with other items.
Those who really
need the food, would appreciate everything that is there. Being fussy over the wrong
flavour frube isn’t a priority in those peoples minds.
This food is
enough and can make 5 lunches.
If however this
is your reality wake up call then you need to look at what you have, what you use
and what you do.
If you look at
this and say it isn’t enough for the money, it isn’t nutritionally adequate for
children and isn’t enough for a child to survive a week on then you need to do 3
things:
- 1.
Check
your own privilege
- 2.
Fight
and Campaign for better food parcels for families in need.
- 3.
Help
fight poverty in the UK
I get caught
in this murky grey societal line. I want to scream and shout that this isn’t good
enough. That the government needs to be better but I’m also looking at this and
thankful that I have something that can help us last the week.
Those who truly
need this help will never look at this box and say “this isn’t enough”. They’ll
look and say “Thank God we’ve got this help".
Isn’t that the
saddest part of all of this?
We CAN look at
this and say that isn’t good enough when many can’t.
I write this because I wanted it to be clear from my point of view. Some people need
to he more grateful for what they receive. They can still be outraged but do so
because of those who are in need, not because it doesn’t suit their privileged expectations.
3 comments:
Fascinating blog post Martyn. I'm SO sorry to read about your experiences a few years ago. I have to say I was one of the privileged people who called out our Gov about the inadequacy of the food parcels this week, but with my position of influence I hope it perpetuated the message up a little higher. I really hope somebody with the power is able to improve the provision for vulnerable families - somebody wealthy is pocketing the difference and people deserve better.
People have actually been complaining that the food is "almost" out of date"? What a very odd thing to say! I do get what you're saying about people speaking from a position of privilege (I guess I'd have to include myself in that) but assuming those images shared on social media were genuine, I was appalled (to clarify, I'm not saying they're all fakes or this is a QAnon conspiracy, but Chartwells has publicly labelled one as fake. The fact they've only said one of them isn't genuine says a lot!). Just to turn this on its head, there are people out there who need help. Help is provided by the Government and the bill for that lands at the taxpayer's door. I want to know that tax is being spent properly and if thirty quid's worth of food has been promised, thirty quid's worth of food-aid been delivered. Foodbank usage was rocketing prior to COVID, numbers relying on foodbanks now must be through the roof. Glad to hear you did back on an even keel in the end and hope you never find yourself in that position again.
Great post.
Very thought provoking. And a great message to send out to people.
I hope you and your family are keeping safe and well.
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