Beck, DJ

English

University of Salford Institutional Repository

26/06/2020 Food poverty at record levels – a children's book on food banks shows how normal it has becomehttps://theconversation.com/food-poverty-at-record-levels-a-childrens-book-on-food-banks-shows-how-normal-it-has-become-126476 1/3AuthorDave BeckLecturer of Social Policy, University ofSalfordAcademic rigour, journalistic flair“Wake up, mum. I’m hungry!” This is the opening line to the recently publishedchildren’s book, It’s a No-Money Day, by Kate Milner, a powerful exploration of foodbanks and life below the poverty line.The UK should not be in a position that such a book needs to be written. But as recent statistics from the Trussell Trust, a charity working to stop UK hunger andpoverty, have shown, food poverty is not going away. It’s increasingly generatingchild victims, whose only salvation comes from donations of emergency foodprovisions.Food poverty, once just a focus of academic concern, is now knocking on the door of children’sliterature. Yet the story told across this 25-page book is becoming an increasingly normal situation inthe UK for many families. Indeed, Milner’s book significantly highlights the level of normalisationthat has been reached with food poverty in the UK.‘Mum goes hungry’Milner’s book is not only an excellent resource to talk to children about poverty, but it’s also a goodway to show how such experiences don’t happen in isolation. Recent data has shown that around 30% HASPhotos/ShutterstockFood poverty at record levels – a children’s book on foodbanks shows how normal it has becomeNovember 20, 2019 3.27pm GMT26/06/2020 Food poverty at record levels – a children's book on food banks shows how normal it has becomehttps://theconversation.com/food-poverty-at-record-levels-a-childrens-book-on-food-banks-shows-how-normal-it-has-become-126476 3/3Poverty Hunger Austerity Food banks Food poverty Children's books Trussell Trust[also] gone without lunch today, because if she eats, there’s nothing to give her kids for tea.So, [we] hide it.Shame and embarrassmentIn my research  with food bank users, the experience of food poverty was seen as a form ofembarrassment. Many of the people I spoke with in food banks indicated they tried to hide theirpoverty from younger family members – as this conversation between myself and one food bankinterviewee highlights:Tony: “I try to keep that away from [my son]. I want him just to focus on his school, I don’t want himto worry about, ‘am I going to eat today, am I not going to eat today?’”.Me: “So, he won’t know where this food has come from today?”Tony: “No. I mean, he’s only thirteen, I don’t want him to start worrying about where he’s going to gethis next meal from, you know. To be fair, he shouldn’t have to worry about that at that age.”It’s clear that many parents work remarkably hard to protect their children from the worst effects ofpoverty. Yet, disturbingly, the “survivors” of poverty, caringly addressed in Milner’s book, are thosewho are fed by the inadequate system of emergency food aid provision such as food banks.I say food banks are inadequate not to take away from the tremendous work they do – they are now aplace of “survival” for many – but simply because they shouldn’t be needed in the first place. And thatfood banks are now entering the realms of children’s literature feels like a further step too far.26/06/2020 Food poverty at record levels – a children's book on food banks shows how normal it has becomehttps://theconversation.com/food-poverty-at-record-levels-a-childrens-book-on-food-banks-shows-how-normal-it-has-become-126476 2/3of children are living in poverty. But what this book also highlights is that treating the use of foodbanks as normal can be a double-edged sword.On one side, normalisation allows people to feel accepted, that others are in similar positions. But italso shows the depths the UK has plummeted to and how the social security welfare safety-net hasbeen unravelled by the impact of austerity. A situation that has created victims out of a punitive ideology in the name of “welfare reform”, where the bedroom-tax, sanctions and universal credit areincreasingly used as tools for “conditionality”. This is when welfare “rights” become conditional onwelfare “responsibilities”, in that people are obligated to behave in a certain way to receive certainbenefits.In 1902, Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree wrote of the poverty experienced by families in York. Rowntree stated that:“The food of these poor people is totally inadequate,” adding that “as a rule … itis the wife and sometimes the children who have to forego a portion of their food –- the importance ofmaintaining the strength of the wage-earner is recognised, and he obtains his ordinary share”.Milner’s book highlights how, today, there is a reversal of these findings. The child character explainshow: “There’s no more cereal, so I have a piece of toast. Luckily, mum isn’t hungry”. Many parents,especially single parents, take the hit on missing a meal when there isn’t enough food – meaning thatfood poverty becomes hidden within the family.This same sentiment was expressed in my research. One woman I spoke to, Donna, told me howcommonplace it is:There are mothers, every single day in every town who are skipping meals to feed theirchildren. When you do not have supplies in your cupboard, and you’ve got no means ofbuying it, you go without to feed your family … [but] you won’t know that your neighbours’Sarah's Story | The Trussell Trust

Food poverty at record levels – a children’s book on food banks shows how normal it has become

http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/57449/1/Food%20poverty%20at%20record%20levels%20%E2%80%93%20a%20children%27s%20book%20on%20food%20banks%20shows%20how%20normal%20it%20has%20become.pdf

Food poverty at record levels – a children’s book on food banks shows how normal it has become

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Salford Institutional Repository