Pupils And Teachers – None Are Spared

When I was a child I was brought up with the highest respect for teachers. My father told me that after your parents, it’s your teachers that deserve the most respect as they nurture your mind and mould you into who you will become.

This week on the Reflection Table we displayed a frame depicting how these most respected members of society, teachers, in the last ten years have been reduced from those providing food to their pupils to themselves needing to go to foodbanks to survive.

Austerity and the rise of foodbanks

When the coalition government led by Prime Minister David Cameron gained power in 2010 they unleashed austerity policies on the poor. The United Nations fact finding mission to the UK, charged with investigating poverty in the 5^th richest country, described these policies as “driven not by economic consideration”, but rather an ideological “commitment to achieving radical social re-engineering” by stripping bare the safety net of the poor “to fund tax cuts for the wealthy”. The poor were forced into hunger, and the use of food banks shot up exponentially. Last year (2022–23) the UK’s largest food banking organisation, the Trussell Trust Foodbank Network, distributed 3 million food parcels to adults and children across the country, up from 61 thousand in the year 2010–11.

In a cynical play David Cameron last year posted photos on social media of himself volunteering at his local foodbank, the reality is, as Zarah Sultana MP pointed out, food bank use went up by 2,612% while he was prime minister, and it’s got worse with each successive austerity government.

Austerity kills

A study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that austerity policies has caused over 330 thousand excess deaths beyond the expected number in England, Wales and Scotland over the eight-year period between 2012 and 2019 – prior to the Covid pandemic. It reflects an increase in people dying prematurely after experiencing reduced income, ill-health, poor nutrition and housing, and social isolation.

In 2020 a review by the UCL Institute of Health Equity revealed that life expectancy in the UK has stalled for the first time in more than 100 years and even reversed for the most deprived women in society, in large part due to the impact of cuts linked to the government’s austerity policies.

Hungry children eating rubbers

Children are one of the vulnerable groups worst impacted by these austerity policies, with 1 in 3 children in Croydon now living in poverty. This goes up to 36.5% in Croydon North constituency where Resistance Kitchen food stall is located. 47% of children going to food banks are aged 5-11 years old, and 27% are under five years old.

Teachers reported children collapsing in class because they were hungry; they noticed children were “eating things such as rubbers to have something in their tummies”. One teacher added: “Children have stolen snacks from other children because they’re hungry and it’s not fair that they’re then tarnished with being a thief by other children when their basic needs should be met.”

More than 80 per cent of primary school teachers polled by the charity Chefs in Schools said children are coming to school hungry because their families cannot afford food. A quarter said children are skipping lunch entirely due to poverty. They noticed it often gets worse towards the end of the week or month when money runs out at home.

A survey of school nurses revealed children being taken to A&E because they have fainted from hunger. Others children were hiding food stolen from their classmates’ lunchboxes to take home to feed their families. Rickets and scurvy are on the rise. Children are failing to grow properly because they are malnourished. Rather than tackle the problem reported by school nurses, successive government budget cuts have resulted in school nurse numbers declining by 35% over the past 10 years.

Teachers feeding pupils

Such hunger amongst children has mobilised teachers in to action to feed their pupils out of their own pockets. A 2012 survey revealed half of teachers (49%) took food to school to feed pupils who were going hungry, and almost one in five (17%) have given money out of their own pockets to buy lunch.

One in five schools set up food banks, with over a third delivering food parcels to pupils’ homes, and over a quarter ran breakfast clubs to feed their hungry pupils

Teachers forced to use foodbanks

With austerity biting harder each successive year, these efforts couldn’t be sustained. Teachers’ salaries have dropped by 24% since 2010. Now in 2023, 1 in 5 teachers are themselves in food poverty. Facing hunger, many of them are having to use food banks to survive.

In in 10 teachers are forced to do second jobs like drive taxis, clean and do bar work. One school trust executive revealed that “At one of my schools, as well as those doing private tutoring, I’ve got a teacher who has to dance at the weekend in a Greek restaurant, a teacher working as a farm hand, and one doing shifts in a bar… They weren’t doing second jobs to fund extras such as holidays, but to keep eating”. He added that his school was running a food bank for pupils’ families, but had also introduced an emergency free food cupboard in the staff room too. “It’s there for staff in need to take food without judgment. That cupboard has to be refilled every day.”

Their counterparts at universities fair no better. One academic staff member shared: “Another morning where I wake up hungry because I couldn’t eat enough last night.” Another wrote: “Food and electricity bills are a big worry. I have very quick showers and at the weekend I come in and work on campus because I’m scared to use too much electricity. My students have no idea I don’t get enough money for teaching them. It’s a battle to make my rent. I’d love to be in a position where I’m not just surviving all the time. It’s incredibly stressful.” Another anonymously shared “This Tuesday I attended my appointment to collect a waste food hamper from a charity. I do this every fortnight so I can make ends meet. No savings in any month.”

War on the poor – who is on our side?

It’s important to understand that this war on the poor is not a policy confined to one political party or government; it’s systemic with all major political parties committed to it. Today it was announced that the teachers have won a 6.5% pay rise from a Tory government, whilst hardly compensating for the 24% loss since 2010, it still a victory. Interestingly just last week the Labour leader Kier Starmer when asked, refused to commit to the same 6.5% pay raise for teachers, which the Tory prime minister has conceded. Labour has also doubled down on other austerity measures like refusing to commit to free school meals for all primary school children, and refusing to remove the two child limit on poor families – a policy that is responsible for the abortion of wanted babies, and of pushing children into poverty. This isn’t a party political issue; it’s a struggle for justice, a demand for fundamental rights from the ruling classes – whichever party they may belong to.

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