Parents struggling with the rising cost of living are skipping meals as they prioritise their children, the Salvation Army has warned.
One of its community managers in Sheringham, Norfolk, said anxious mums and dads “look broken asking for help” and tell her they “never had to claim benefits before”.
“I know that, for these people, we are the last resort,” Carol McKean added. “They really are short of food for their kids, and some are saying they haven’t eaten for a couple of days so their kids can eat.”
The church charity, which has more than 600 locations in the UK, is expecting to provide thousands of cooked meals and food parcels for children during the summer.
Amid “unprecedented” demand, it is calling for benefits to keep up with inflation.
“All day long they are telling me they’re hungry,” said a mother from Swindon whose children will be missing school meals during the holidays.
The mum, who fled an abusive relationship, added: “Though my children are entitled to food vouchers, the amount has been halved despite prices going up.
“I’ve worked out I am £165 short every month, and that’s just for my bills.
“I’ll go several times a week without a main dinner and just having beans on toast for breakfast. I don’t care about myself as long as my children eat.”
Dean Pallant, the organisation’s Lieutenant Colonel, said: “When I hear Salvation Army officers report that ‘people are on the bones of their knees’ and they have seen children who are ‘anorexically thin’ it sounds like something from 1865, when the Salvation Army was founded, not 2022.”
Emergency government payments to help poorer households with rising energy bills will bring “some desperately needed relief” but “short-term measures only provide a temporary sticking plaster on a long-term crisis”, he added.
“To protect people from sinking further into poverty over time we are calling for all benefits intended to help people on low incomes to keep up with inflation.
“We have already seen a surge in demand at our food banks since the start of the cost of living crisis. We are now braced to feed more children than ever over the next few weeks.”
The charity is also calling for existing universal credit debt to be covered by the government’s 60-day Breathing Space scheme, expansion of free childcare so parents can afford to work, and a new cross-government taskforce to tackle the underlying causes of poverty.
Regular pay has seen the biggest plunge in more than 20 years when rising prices are taken into account, according to the Office for National Statistics.
