STRUGGLE TO KEEP KIDS FED

1 in 4 parents going hungry

BROKE parents are going without food just so their children can eat.

One in four adults said they had restricted their intake to ensure their youngsters had enough.

A quarter struggle to access affordable meals, with 10% getting food from friends or family, 11% buying groceries with credit cards and 4% using foodbanks.

Half of the adults surveyed are consuming less preferred and less expensive food.

The figures, in a report from Feeding Britain, came as Man United ace Marcus Rashford, 23, persuaded the Government to give poor schoolchildren meals over the summer.

The charity’s boss Andrew Forsey said: “This survey reveals the lengths to which millions of people in our country are going to keep themselves and their families fed during the pandemic.”

Feeding Britain says it will have distributed a million free meals nationwide by the end of June.

Following Rashford’s intervention, the Government has committed to funding free meal vouchers for 1.3 million children free from low-income families over the summer holidays.

Mum-of-three Stacy Kennedy relies on food delivered by FareShare to her local church.

Stacy, 36, from Wigan, Lancs, said: “I cannot thank Marcus Rashford enough.”

Feeding Britain is calling for new policies to safeguard families’ access to “affordable food of sufficient quality and quantity”.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “We are wholly committed to supporting the lowest-paid families.”