There's no justification for children going hungry (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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There's no justification for children going hungry
11:38am Wednesday 20th June 2012 in Nick Nunn column
By Nick Nunn, Assistant editor
LAST week’s call by a Pendle councillor for charities to bring food banks to Nelson is disturbing and raises a number of serious questions.
Coun Eileen Ansar said school dinner ladies had reported pupils turning up with only a sandwich or a few biscuits to see them through until teatime.
She said some young families faced a choice between keeping a roof over their heads and eating three square meals a day. Housing benefit, she insisted, was not enough to meet average rents in the town.
Whatever the government says about the nation’s economic troubles, we are not a poor country and there can be no justification for children going hungry.
There is of course an argument about public money subsidising youngsters to buy ‘junk food’ with little or no nutritional value and merely fuels health problems and our obesity epidemic.
But I thought school meals were meant to be healthy and if incomes are below a certain level families are entitled to free ones anyway.
If they are not being taken up then it’s better surely to educate people on how to get what is rightfully theirs?
There is another possibility – that these pupils have parents who do have the incomes but are failing to face up to their responsibilities to meet the needs of sons and daughters.
If that’s the case there has to be intervention to educate (without pussyfooting around) feckless adults and make certain youngsters don’t suffer.
And also perhaps to check children aren’t being given money for food – and frittering it away on something else!
Giving out vouchers as part of benefits to direct spending to food rather than fags or booze would be a good way of tackling the issue.
If such action is said to be demeaning for benefit recipients then I’d argue that if they can show that feeding their children is the top priority then it won’t be necessary.
Charities do superb work in helping to develop the third world as well as supporting so many at home who are failed by our so-called welfare state.
But they should not be expected to stop our children from suffering hunger pangs in the classroom.
It’s such a basic matter that there has to be an effective government safety net.
Comments(13)
manyarecalled
says...
1:16pm Wed 20 Jun 12
if it has reached the level of a councillor being involved, the problem is widespread.
frankly , the government , whoever that is , is not interested in ordinary people.
manyarecalled
says...
1:16pm Wed 20 Jun 12
if it has reached the level of a councillor being involved, the problem is widespread.
frankly , the government , whoever that is , is not interested in ordinary people.
Ken Shuffles
says...
1:20pm Wed 20 Jun 12
.
Healthy nutritious food grows to satisfy and address the hunger of people, and if time and effort and kindness cannot be utilised to address the hunger of people, there is just going to be no hope of progress.
.
Food for People.
Ken Shuffles
says...
1:23pm Wed 20 Jun 12
Ken Shuffles
says...
1:43pm Wed 20 Jun 12
.
People in governments need to know. They need to appreciate and admire who they are, not what they think they are.
Ken Shuffles
says...
1:51pm Wed 20 Jun 12
Ken Shuffles
says...
1:53pm Wed 20 Jun 12
Ken Shuffles
says...
3:41pm Wed 20 Jun 12
davidinburnley
says...
7:13pm Wed 20 Jun 12
l m h jones
says...
11:01pm Wed 20 Jun 12
davidinburnley wrote:and if you loose your job and salary put them in the workhouse? the original writer of the letter obviously hasn't a clue about the realities of the current situation of financial hardship for many working families let alone those on benefits once again the favoured daily mail cliché that all children in need must come from "feckless" homes where parents spend their income on booze and fags..how about parents spending all their income on utilities;fuel;rent/
If you can't afford 'em - don't have 'em!
mortgage;council tax etc. etc.
Ken Shuffles
says...
11:28am Thu 21 Jun 12
davidinburnley wrote:People and animals were having children before transactions were invented. Money is there to serve the needs of people, money is not there, so we can all breed or not breed according to a financial position. Ridiculous comment.
If you can't afford 'em - don't have 'em!
.
If the world's poorest had not continued to breed the rich and fatand greedy side of human societies would have withered and died out a very long time ago.
Ken Shuffles
says...
11:32am Thu 21 Jun 12
manyarecalled says...
1:16pm Wed 20 Jun 12
if it has reached the level of a councillor being involved, the problem is widespread.
frankly , the government , whoever that is , is not interested in ordinary people.