Teachers fear more than half a million children will go hungry this summer: 'It just can't go on'

Two thirds (67%) of teachers in England expect children in their class to go hungry over the summer holidays as families lose access to vital school support.

New figures from food rescue charity The Felix Project show that half of teachers worry one to three children in their class will go without food. A further 13% think up to six children will be affected and 2% fear 10 or more.

That could mean up to 675,000 school-aged children in England facing holiday hunger this summer – nearly identical to 2024 levels.

At William Ford Junior School in Dagenham, headteacher David Huntingford said the statistics are upsetting but not unexpected.

“Sadly, we’re not surprised when we see it, because we live it each day,” he said. “There are children which we regularly have to sort of find food for or snacks for, or we recognise they’re trying to sneak extra portions with sort of school dinners and things like that as well.”

His school is one of 28 in London that will remain open this summer to help distribute food to families, provided by The Felix Project. The need is enormous – and growing.

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“It is so, so sad to see children that are very, very hungry and are malnourished,” he said. “Every child gets a cooked, hot lunch every day during term time… That’s taken away when the school is closed.”

Unsurprisingly, holiday hunger is not evenly distributed. In England’s most deprived areas, just 9% of teachers think no child in their class will go hungry. In affluent areas, that figure rises to 41%.

Primary-aged children are especially at risk. 73% of primary school teachers said they expected at least one child to struggle with hunger over the holidays — potentially affecting 390,000 children between the ages of four and 11.

It impacts both physical and mental health, Huntingford warned.

“Expressions like feeling hangry, which some adults use, perhaps in a sort of jokey fashion, really does apply – that some children can really lose their temper and get really upset, and it is just because they are hungry.”

Hunger is even more acute for families living in temporary accommodation, where cooking facilities are often non-existent.

In London, around 90,000 children are currently living in hotels, hostels or other unsuitable housing – equivalent to one in every 21 children.

“We have had parents who have had to survive on sort of Tesco meal deals to feed their children because they can’t prepare hot meals… Don’t even have a microwave, having to wash their clothes in the bath. It just can’t go on,” said Huntingford.

Richard and his wife live in Dagenham and have three children. The couple both work, but at the moment things are very tight.

“My wife works part time. I work full time but am off sick because I recently had a mini stroke,” Richard explains. “It’s been a while so I’m now on half pay, but my expenses are not, I have to pay full rent, full bills. It’s very stressful and emotional at moment.”

The summer holidays are a particularly difficult time.

“My son goes to breakfast club every morning and he obviously gets free school meals, but with him being home in the holidays these two meals have got to be covered by me. This obviously, with the cost of living and high food costs means our food bills go up. Plus, I’ve got three children, so that’s six meals a day,” he says.

Like many families, Richard says he has to be really careful with his finances: “I get paid every four weeks and within two weeks, I’m in my overdraft already because of my bills, it feels like they don’t stop coming.”

To meet soaring demand, The Felix Project is ramping up food deliveries during the summer break.

During term time, the charity provides food to 170 schools every week. Over the next six weeks, it will send hundreds of tonnes more to both existing and new sites across London. Twenty-eight schools will stay open to distribute larger volumes of food directly to families.

But demand is growing, said Charlotte Hill, CEO of The Felix Project,

“For so many, the holidays are a real struggle… But for so many, on already tight food budgets, the extra burden is just unmanageable. All this means kids will go hungry.”

One year into a Labour government, and the figures are virtually unchanged from 2024.

Despite the worsening crisis, the government has so far refused to scrap the two-child benefit cap – a policy that limits child-related benefits to the first two children in a family. According to child poverty charities, the cap is one of the single biggest drivers of child poverty in the UK.

Campaigners and charities argue that removing the cap would lift around 250,000 children out of poverty overnight, and meaningfully alleviate child hunger.

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