The food poverty debate is making me FURIOUS. I have taught these children, the ones who rarely see mum and dad because they’re at work when they get home from school, busy earning a poverty wage working for the wealthy. The ones who begin eating their free school lunch at speed

and then catch themselves, because they don’t want anyone to know how hungry they really are. The ones whose blazer is third or even fourth-hand and not quite the same colour of the new ones in their class. The ones who seem pale and ill every winter but keep coming in because

the heating is on at school. The ones whose faces drop for a second when they realise a trip costs money, but fix it quickly and announce that they don’t want to go. The ones who are sometimes have unwashed hair and you as a tutor have to politely ask why their hair hasn’t been

washed for a few weeks. The ones who breakdown in this chat and admit the family can’t afford gas so the showers are cold and they can’t face being in their long enough to wash their hair. And they only have shampoo & conditioner when the food bank provides it because

shower gel will do the job, except it doesn’t really and your hair stays greasy. The ones who are given £2 to go to a shop to buy their dinner but they don’t know how to cook pasta so they buy chicken shop meals that fill them up for a little, but make them feel ill later.

These are real young people, living their lives, LISTENING and READING people debate whether they deserve a packed lunch over the holidays. No wonder MH symptoms are on the rise in our teenagers.

My heart breaks for the boys and girls whose stories I reference in this thread.
I can’t engage with this debate anymore.