a post by Alison Garnham (Chief Executive) for the CPAG blog
In a week when CPAG has published the brilliant new book Living hand to mouth – children and food in low income families by Rebecca O’Connell, Abigail Knight and Julia Brannen, it might seem strange to suggest that food is not the solution to hunger.
The book documents, in heart-breaking detail, children and families’ experiences of going without, being hungry to the point of experiencing pain and re-visiting an empty cupboard in the hope that some food might have appeared since the last inspection. It also recounts the everyday episodes of stigma and shame children experience from not being allowed their choice of food from their canteen-style free school meal or making excuses to avoid social occasions with friends because they can’t afford the costs involved.
Yes, the children and families in the book are going hungry. They should not be, and the fact that they are should make us rightly outraged that our friends and neighbours are living like this in 2019. We live in a country where food is plentiful – we don’t lack food, but some of us lack the resources to buy it. The same goes for money for rent, fuel to heat our homes and cook the food, nappies for children, clothes, household equipment, travel and toiletries.
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