ON THE POVERTY LINE: Struggling UK families relying on donated baby food

 

Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom

VIJAY SHAH via LAURA MAY MCMULLAN/BBC

 

Economically-disadvantaged families in many parts of the UK are struggling so much to feed themselves and their children that they are being forced to rely on donations of baby food from the public, the BBC reports today.

In the English town of Stoke-on-Trent, 158 miles (254 km.) from the capital London, destitute mothers are living on so little that they have taken to eating baby food themselves, according to a local charity that distributes infant items to hard-up parents.

Photo by Marcin Jozwiak on Pexels.com

 

The Nappy Project, which collects donations of baby food, nappies (diapers) and wet wipes from donors to pass onto needy parents and carers in the town, said that they have received a hundred new referrals for their services last month alone. The charity’s founder, told the BBC that: “These families are eating baby food because that’s the only food they’re going to have in the house,” 

The Nappy Project, which opened its doors eighteen months ago, has now increased its workload from an initial 20 families to around 400 today from their operations centres in the Hanley district of Stoke-on-Trent.

Food banks and donated food, clothing and other materials are fast becoming a fact of life for the UK’s poorer sections of society, as government-led welfare changes, such as the introduction of the controversial all-in-one Universal Credit system, plus austerity measures and a rising cost of living leave people with less and less to live on.

 

SOURCES:

“UK – BBC News”, BBC News, BBC (2 February 2020) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk

“Struggling Stoke-on-Trent families ‘eat donated baby food'” – Laura May McMullan, BBC Midlands Today/BBC News/BBC (2 February 2020) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-51299335

IMAGE CREDIT:

Marcin Jozwiak/Pexels.