40% parents skip meals so that their children can eat
JUST over 40% of parents are skipping meals to make sure their children have enough to eat, a stark new survey has found.
The latest annual Barnardos and Aldi Ireland food research released today, found food insecurity in families with children is worsening as the cost-of-living crisis drags on.
An increasingly large proportion of children are living in homes where parents are cutting back or going without meals themselves to feed their children.
They are also cutting down on essentials such as clothing, electricity and heat in order to make sure enough food is on the table.
The research showed parents are borrowing money or using food banks to feed themselves and their children.
The percentage of parents who admitted to skipping a meal or cutting back on their own food has risen from 29% in 2022 to 41% in 2023. A total of 48% had cut back on clothes to buy food, up from 43%, while 54% of parents had reduced their spending on their own activities and hobbies, also up from 43%.
One quarter of parents had to reduce spending on medical costs, up from 17% the year before.
Three in ten said they had cut back on household bills, up from 25%. Nearly a quarter (24%) said they had to borrow money to feed a child, up from 16%.
Just 27% said they had never had to cut back on anything in order to afford food – down from 36% of parents the year before.
By contrast, 45% of parents were either always or sometimes worried about having enough food for the family.
This is up on the year before (42%), but has more than doubled since the end of 2021 (19%).
Of those parents who are worried, half are ‘stressed’, 26% say they feel guilty and 17% said they are afraid to ask for help.
A spokesman for Barnardos said: ‘Living in households experiencing food insecurity can be damaging to children’s health, wellbeing and development. More needs to be done to guarantee no family struggles to have access to sufficient nutritious food.’
The charity is calling on the Government to continue rolling out the hot school meals programme and extend it to secondary schools and suggested out-of-term meals for children who depend on these during the school year.
It said families on low incomes should be given additional supports in Budget 2025 and decisions should be made within 48 hours for families who apply for an additional needs payment.
Barnardos chief Suzanne Connolly said: ‘The results in this survey reflect what we are seeing on the ground every day. Parents are being faced with difficult decisions to more frequently than ever. A lack of nutritious meals has an impact on the emotional and mental wellbeing of both child and parent for a long to time to come. Because childhood lasts a lifetime.’
Karen Kiernan, head of One Family, which represents people parenting alone or sharing, said the report made ‘grim reading’, but that the figures would be higher still if lone parents were surveyed exclusively.
She added: ‘The results are stark, but they are not surprising. We know that one-parent families are often struggling on a daily basis as a lot of things, including food, continue to go up in price.
‘We hear it all the time from people trying to make difficult choices in terms of what they spend their money on to keep their family functioning and allow their children to stay in school.
‘These are often choices no family should have to make. None of this is inevitable. The Government could have made different choices in previous years, and can make a difference in the next budget.’
Louise Bayliss, co-founder of Single Parents Acting for the Rights of our Kids, said: ‘One lady told me that by Monday she has no money left, and very little food in the house. Her 14-year-old son always gets fed, but she said she just eats toast on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and makes excuses to her son.’
‘Results are stark, but not surprising’