Food parcels needed to help pupils in Nelson (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Food parcels needed to help pupils in Nelson
11:40am Saturday 16th June 2012 in News
VITAL food parcels are needed so East Lancashire youngsters are not left hungry in lessons, a councillor has insisted.
School dinner ladies in Nelson have reported pupils turning up with only a single sandwich or just biscuits to see them through till tea-time, says Coun Eileen Ansar.
Now she is calling for more charities to bring food banks to the Pendle town to help out hard-hit young families.
Coun Ansar says that families are being faced with a choice between keeping a roof over their heads and eating three square meals a day.
Housing benefit of £55 per week was not adequate when the average rent in Nelson is around £88, she said.
Coun Ansar added: “There are dinner ladies who have told us that children are turning up at school with only a couple of slices of bread or some biscuits.
“Mothers are having to choose between having to eat or being able to pay the rent, which is terrible.
“There are a couple of charities which are looking at the situation but we need to get more people involved.”
Community Solutions Lancashire has teamed up with the Grassroots organisation, based at Nelson’s St Philip’s Church, in a bid to examine the problem.
Food parcels are being offered to families in crisis but community workers are still trying to assess the extent of the problem.
Mark Hirst, a director at Community Solutions, said: “We are very keen to partner any organisation who wants to set up a food bank and we received a phone call from Suzanne Waddicor at Grassroots.”
He said that demand for food parcels had increased, in the current economic climate, and his organisation had recently secured warehouse premises in Burnley to expand their operation.
Comments are closed on this article.
Comments (70)
12:35pm Sat 16 Jun 12
slammer says...
Care packages for the UK?
Schulspeisung for kids like just after after the war in Germany.
Welcome to the third world ladies and gentlemen.
12:43pm Sat 16 Jun 12
justaworkinlad says...
Today's benefit system ensures that everyone has enough money and in some cases too much. Anyone who applies for a food package should have to submit to budget training, learning how to handle money in a responcible way, if they refuse then their benefits should be paid in voucher form.
12:57pm Sat 16 Jun 12
alldaylong says...
1:15pm Sat 16 Jun 12
happycyclist says...
How the hell can any government justify a £55pw HB cap on people in Colne and pay out £500+pw for immigrant families in London?
1:47pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Coeur de Lion says...
1:50pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
2:15pm Sat 16 Jun 12
prince of darkness says...
2:16pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
2:44pm Sat 16 Jun 12
nelsoner1966 says...
Benefits should be paid in vouchers !
2:51pm Sat 16 Jun 12
mavrick says...
It is a damming Indictment of the state of the country. Nobody should go hungry in this country. As for Benefits I will publicly state that if that's all people have to live on then they are existing. The Benefits for genuine claimants is to low. It is easy to target anybody out of work or sick, but if you are genuinely sick you need more help to pay for heating, food, transport to hospitals, or pay for parking. prescriptions. not everybody on Benefits gets all these free. we need to look at a much fairer system to **** peoples needs. The Atos test is the biggest con in the country. There is a hard core of Benefit cheats who are now being caught and basically getting away with it. The sentences are to lenient for the big cheats.
So before you jump on the bandwagon of condemnation spare a thought for the genuine people, it could be you soon.
3:11pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Stuart Farquar says...
3:23pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Stuart Farquar says...
3:24pm Sat 16 Jun 12
simon.clark123@hotmail.com says...
3:31pm Sat 16 Jun 12
nelsoner1966 says...
But for every genuine claimant there are ten lazy work shy oxygen thieves, that have taken the decision not to work! Those people should be given vouchers !
3:46pm Sat 16 Jun 12
simon.clark123@hotmail.com says...
3:48pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Stuart Farquar says...
3:58pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
4:06pm Sat 16 Jun 12
ROBERTSLUMDWELLER123 says...
4:13pm Sat 16 Jun 12
ToffeeGuy says...
Sandwiches for a weeks worth of lunches could be done for £1. Cheap loaf of bread = 50p. Cheap pate/ham = 50p.
You could also bake a load of cakes for £1 to put in the lunch boxes all week.
I don't like to judge but the number of times I see families in supermarkets with a trolley stacked high with processed foods and ready meals, pizzas etc. Some of these families will no doubt be claiming benefits.
Times are hard for a lot of people but perhaps the food banks should also offer cooking lessons for some of the families as well. It is usually true that the most nutritious food are the cheapest. Tinned tomatoes, pasta, carrots, rice etc. All comparatively cheap. A few few simple staple foods which can make filling meals.
4:22pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Heretical says...
My neighbours,both actively seeking work but failing, why...well, lack of jobs,qualifications etc comes to mind, get HB and every week without fail have to 'hock' their stuff to pay for gas and electric.
They have no plasma,no leather suite...don't drink or do drugs...decent people struggling! They just found out they are owed £500 by the DWP plus the 3 weeks money that the DWP owe but haven't got round to transferring yet.... because 'er,our mistake, yes I know you called but we didn't get to it!' wtf?
Perhaps my neighbours should consult the dodgers who live the luxury that everyone seems to think all claimants do.
4:34pm Sat 16 Jun 12
woolywords says...
Or are LCC, the body responsible, cutting costs by not making it known whom may claim?
Where school staff have concerns over the welfare of any child that is in their care, albeit for the school day, they have both a moral and legal duty to investigate. Any and every child that is in school should be monitored to ensure that they are well nourished, by whatever means.
Although there is on here, an assumption that these children are from non-working homes, I venture to suggest that this may not necessarily be the case. How many families try to survive on the minimum wages, not knowing that they are entitled to benefits?
With spiralling costs in housing, fuel and food, it takes some doing to balance a budget when you have a limited income. For anyone to take some kind of moral high ground and state, they are all scoungers is in my opinion quite wrong of you, deserved only of shame and contempt.
Better that you say, there but for the grace of God, go I. Or better yet, nothing at all.
Shame, upon you all..
4:40pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Stuart Farquar says...
4:47pm Sat 16 Jun 12
colnelad says...
4:54pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Stuart Farquar says...
4:58pm Sat 16 Jun 12
happycyclist says...
People like you make me sick.
5:02pm Sat 16 Jun 12
pepperpot2296 says...
5:07pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Stuart Farquar says...
5:48pm Sat 16 Jun 12
colnelad says...
6:04pm Sat 16 Jun 12
shytalk says...
Any1 want to join me on a march from John o groats to westminster to end it? Am no communist. Am no right wing nazi,BNP supporter, just a genuine guy who wants to see fair play in society, and put some demands to the existing politicians to get things sorted. jethrotull01@hotmail
.co.uk
6:36pm Sat 16 Jun 12
2 for 5p says...
6:36pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
.co.uk maybe using your real name might help in taking you a little more seriously.
6:41pm Sat 16 Jun 12
2 for 5p says...
6:46pm Sat 16 Jun 12
2 for 5p says...
6:48pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
6:58pm Sat 16 Jun 12
2 for 5p says...
why I hear you ask.
Because that's what the controlling and ruling classes want to see working class begging for food. Sights like that they enjoy.
It put more fear into the rest of society so the controlling and ruling classes can sh*t on us even more and we will be to frightened to do anything just in case we end up begging for food
7:01pm Sat 16 Jun 12
jack daniels says...
Jesus wept! You haven't got a clue....
7:21pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Malthus says...
7:23pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Stuart Farquar says...
7:26pm Sat 16 Jun 12
beagle says...
UTC
7:32pm Sat 16 Jun 12
jack daniels says...
Saying that the working class give more (in proportion to earnings) than the rich; it could be argued that we can take pride in us working class helping each other.
7:42pm Sat 16 Jun 12
jack daniels says...
7:46pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
7:51pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Steve4x4 says...
7:58pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Mothernature says...
8:22pm Sat 16 Jun 12
jack daniels says...
8:29pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Stuart Farquar says...
8:35pm Sat 16 Jun 12
colnelad says...
8:38pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
8:58pm Sat 16 Jun 12
mavrick says...
They have controlled employment by the use of short term contracts and the reduction in protection for those in work. It was like this in the 50s with people offering to work for a penny an hour less than someone else. And they said the unions had too much power. Here we are 62 years later with people needing food parcels. wake up to the Tory evil. Speak up and demand a better deal all round.
9:08pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Coeur de Lion says...
Trophy
Cabinet
9:18pm Sat 16 Jun 12
colnelad says...
The
Clarets
and you'll have to get used to it THICKO'S
11:03pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Good call says...
11:11pm Sat 16 Jun 12
Darwen Malc says...
12:06am Sun 17 Jun 12
ToffeeGuy says...
Plenty of nutrition in bread, ham, butter, sugar flour. Put an apple or orange in the lunch box as well. These are cheap foods.
Eating cheap foods isn't hardship. With imagination they can be tasty.
Have a tin of plum tomatoes instead of expensive pasta sauces.
We've lost the links to our culinary past where meat was an expensive luxury and had to be stretched out over a week by using potatoes and other veg. Nowadays people expect a roast meal or chops everyday.
1:08am Sun 17 Jun 12
jack daniels says...
1:23am Sun 17 Jun 12
jack daniels says...
8:26am Sun 17 Jun 12
Coeur de Lion says...
Unused
Trophy
Cabinet
Under
The
Clarets
Ha
Ha
10:59am Sun 17 Jun 12
pepperpot2296 says...
10:59am Sun 17 Jun 12
Izanears says...
School dinner ladies in Nelson have reported pupils turning up with only a single sandwich or just biscuits to see them through till tea-time, says Coun Eileen Ansar.
Now she is calling for more charities to bring food banks to the Pendle town to help out hard-hit young families.
Coun Ansar says that families are being faced with a choice between keeping a roof over their heads and eating three square meals a day.
Coun Ansar just loves being in the public eye, and this is just her latest cause. There is no one starving in Pendle Coun Ansar. Ethiopia and other places in Africa there are thousands of people with swollen bellies and matchstick limbs, but in Pendle; definitely not. If a family is poor, and poverty is always subjective, (it never ceases to amaze me how many so called 'poor' have SKY/VIRGIN and the latest Samsung/Blackberry phones) the children are entitled to free school meals. Saying that School Dinner ladies are reporting than some children only have a sandwich, or biscuits to last all day really is plumbing the depths when it comes to trying to raise the level of emotion on this issue. Has anyone ever asked if this is only what the children themseves want? On a slightly different tack, I personally know of a family where the parents stayed in bed and the children had to get themselves ready for school, which also involved preparing their lunch box. In this case a sandwich or biscuits would be the easiest thing. So not poverty here, just idle parents. On my daily walks I often see the contents of lunch boxes thrown into the hedgrow. WHY? Well mum has attempted to provide healthy food, which the children did not want. Stand outside any sweetshop near a school and you will see hordes of children buying crisps, chocolate, fizzy drinks, jelly babies etc. In Pendle we are fortunate in having food shops that cater for all income groups, so even in these difficult times it is not necessary for anyone to go hungry.
11:36am Sun 17 Jun 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
1:27pm Sun 17 Jun 12
jack daniels says...
And you accuse me of wearing Jack boots....
You're as feckless as that Stuart chap.
2:15pm Sun 17 Jun 12
happycyclist says...
2:20pm Sun 17 Jun 12
Stuart Farquar says...
2:33pm Sun 17 Jun 12
sen c bl says...
3:01pm Sun 17 Jun 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
3:04pm Sun 17 Jun 12
jack daniels says...
4:33pm Sun 17 Jun 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58 says...
7:22am Mon 18 Jun 12
hunter3062 says...
1:14pm Mon 18 Jun 12
ChairOnMyHead says...
6:16pm Thu 21 Jun 12
NelsonAsianButProudBritish says...