I STOLE FOOD SO MY CHILDREN HAD A SCHOOL LUNCH

As one woman speaks out about her desperate measures to feed her family, campaigners paint a stark picture of parents’ despair

A DESPERATE mother has told how she stole two packs of corned beef and a block of cheese to fill her hungry children’s school lunch boxes.

In a harrowing account that shocked radio listeners yesterday, the single parent revealed: ‘I hit rock bottom and stole.’

The plight of the woman and her family is an all too common occurrence for single parents, though, a number of charitable organisations and campaigners said yesterday.

Responding to the tragic case, former Dublin Lord Mayor Christy Burke said he has come across several real-life ‘horror stories’ where parents are stealing to feed their children. And the ISPCC said

that shockingly ‘one in eight children are in consistent poverty’.

Dublin’s Capuchin Centre for homeless people also pointed out that it has seen the number of children coming to its centre to be fed double to over 8,000 per year in the space of just five years.

The shocking si t uation f or parents on the breadline gained attention on Cork’s RedFM radio station yesterday.

In an anonymous letter to The Neil Prendeville Show, the single mother spoke of her ‘ shame’ and referred to herself as a ‘failure’ for struggling to put f ood i n the mouths of her own children.

‘I took two packs of corned beef and a block of cheese from a local shop so I could give my kids school lunches this week,’ she confessed.

‘I’m desperate and can’t figure my way out of this mess and I don’t know how I’m going to even feed my kids this week.’

The most at-risk families to fall into poverty traps are those with single parents, One Family, the ISPCC and Money Advice and Budgeting Service said – pointing out the lack of a second income and the cuts to welfare payments in recent years are too hard to bear for many. In her anguished letter, the distraught mother continued: ‘I’m a lone parent, not by choice, and before anyone starts thinking we have it easy, think again. I’m in full-time education trying to get a qualification to help me get a job.

‘I don’t waste my money. I don’t go out. I don’t drink or smoke but I’m falling deeper and deeper into debt so much so that I’ve started to think that the kids would probably be better off without me.’

She added: ‘My oldest is doing their Leaving Cert this year and studying like mad to try get a place in college, but I don’t know how to tell her I don’t have any money to help her out. I’m a failure of a mom who can’t properly provide for my kids and who now, to my shame, is also a thief. I’m seriously at my wits’ end – and having to resort to theft is the final straw for me.’

She concluded: ‘I’m so embarrassed and ashamed of myself, but my kids come first, so I’m begging you to ask your listeners if anyone has a few hours work they could offer me, I’d be eternally grateful.’

The mother’s shocking admission comes just months after it was revealed that one in five children go to school hungry. And research from charity Healthy Food For All found that while 20% of children go to school hungry, thousands of pupils from disadvantaged areas are unable to avail of the State- funded free meals scheme due to cuts. The School Completion Programme, which funds initiatives such as breakfast and homework clubs in 700 schools, had its funding cut by €4.25million in November 2014. Its budget has been slashed from almost €29million to around €24.75million – or by approximately 14.5% – since 2007.

A spokesman for the Irish National Teachers Organisation said that while disadvantaged DEIS schools can avail of the free meals for every child in their school, the problem is that 50% of disadvantaged children attend non-DEIS schools, and so are not entitled to the free meals.

Former Dublin mayor Christy Burke said this is not the first time he has heard of parents stealing food for their children. He said: ‘I have had parents come and tell me that they regularly – on a weekly basis – go and steal because they can’t make ends meet. I know a woman who used to go into a hotel in the morning where she wasn’t asked what room number and she used to feed her two kids.’ He added another woman rang him to say she and her family were only able to have water with their cornflakes. ‘That stuck in my mind,’ he said. ‘They are horror stories. That’s the real world.’

The cost of housing has been identified as one of the major financial burdens on families.

Rent supplement payments have not changed since June 2013, although rents have risen by more than 20% in some areas since then.

Single parents with children aged seven or older were also moved off the One-Parent Family Payment and on to the Jobseeker’s payment, Carer’s Allowance or Family Income Supplement last summer.

Up to 40,000 parents were impacted by this change in payment, which was €188 plus €29.80 for each child under seven, last July. Women made up 98% of these parents.

Karen Kiernan of One Family, which campaigns for all families to be treated equally, said: ‘The most common type of families in emergency accommodation is one-parent families... People who are parenting on their own are the poorest family in Ireland. Their children are the poorest children.’

ISPCC chief executive Grainia Long and Michael Culloty of MABS echoed this concern for one-parent families in particular.

‘That’s the real world’