Mum forced to eat stock cubes in order to feed her children, charity boss tells LBC

8 February 2022, 18:47 | Updated: 8 February 2022, 18:51

By Seán Hickey

This charity boss tells LBC that he has been in touch with a working mum that has taken to eating raw stock cubes so she can afford to feed her children.

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Andrew Forsey, the National Director of Feeding Britain spoke to Shelagh Fogarty amid news that 1 million British adults have gone the entire day without food as prices soar.

"Given the level and severity of hardship we encounter on a daily basis, these numbers certainly don't come as a surprise", he declared.

"What are you hearing and seeing yourselves?" Shelagh asked. Mr Forsey listed interactions he has had with pensioners and people out of work that have particularly felt the bite of the cost of living crisis, but one instance stood out.

"In particular, yesterday there was a working mum with three children who herself was getting by on stock cubes so she could put some food on her children's plates.

"The whole family had to share the same bed because they couldn't afford to heat their home." Shelagh was shocked, and taken aback when Mr Forsey told her that she wasn't making a "thin soup" out of the stock, but "eating them straight out of the packet."

"You say she's a working mum. What's bearing down on her?"

The charity boss explained that the cost of living crisis has brought about such horror for this mum: "Since October people both in and out of work have lost £20 of Universal Credit...parents haven't had the wage increases they need to compensate for that loss of income."

"The cost of living, particularly for the very poorest households has begun to increase as well and that's before they, like all the rest of us, are clobbered by this next round of price increases in April."