By Emilia Palica and Annagiulia Mura
Hunger is more often than not a reason why children struggle with their education, according to the panellists taking part in yesterday’s debate Hungry London, organised by London Metropolitan University.
“Children who go to school hungry – they can’t concentrate well, study well, do your work well. If that goes on for a longer basis it affects your mental health,” said Leon Aarts, founder of With Compassion.
According to statistics published in 2019 by London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan, there were almost two million people in London who couldn’t afford to eat properly, with almost 400,00 of them children under the age of 16.
The situation doesn’t look any better more than a year later – in fact, it looks worse. The global pandemic means that many people have lost their jobs and the need for help has increased.
An analysis by the Trussell Trust, which provides emergency food to people in crisis through a network of food banks, shows more than a 60% increase in the need for food parcels across the UK from October to December.
Research done by Kellogg Company shows that hunger is the main reason that causes children problems with their education.
“If a child arrives at school hungry, teachers say they lose one hour of learning time a day,” says the Kellogg report, based on research done by YouGov.
The report says that “31 per cent of teachers say they have to spend a disproportionately higher amount of teaching time with children who arrive at school hungry, than with those who don’t. The grip of hunger could potentially cost the English economy at least £5.2million a year through teachers losing teaching hours to cope with the needs of hungry children.”
This isn’t an easy situation for parents either, as poverty means they often struggle with their mental health.
“You go on an emotional roller-coaster and mentally you go through a range of emotions, ranging from suicidal thoughts to questioning why you were born,” said Tiffanie Cummings, 38, health care worker and mother of three, who was part of yesterday’s panel.
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