A struggling mum-of-four says she has to eat her children's leftovers to survive and is dreading Christmas because she can't afford it amid the ongoing cost of living crisis. Victoria Walker said her 11-year-old daughter has even offered up her pocket money to help her buy food because she has no spare cash.
The single mum, from Bath, said she relies of cups of coffee and tea throughout the day to fill her up and only rarely puts the heating on as the rising cost of everyday goods pushes families to breaking point across the UK. Speaking to ITV news about her situation, Victoria said she makes sure her children eat, and if there are any, she will eat their leftovers.
Victoria also said she is not looking forward to Christmas as it is looking "sad" for them this year because she cannot afford it, LeicestershireLive reports. “Unless I really have to, I’ll eat," she said. "But I fill myself up with tea and coffee in the daytime. I would like the children to eat, and if they leave any leftovers, I tend to have the leftovers.
"It just makes me sad. It breaks my heart. Christmas is looking sad for me. I can’t afford Christmas.”
Like many in the same situation, Victoria has resorted to using a community pantry to help feed her family. Volunteers say they have been shocked at the rising number of people they are seeing relying on their services.
One said: “People are really living hand to mouth at the moment, for many of our families. It’s not just those on benefits anymore, it’s families in work. We’ve got one mum that holds down three jobs and she’s still worried about feeding her children.”
Victoria and her family have also been receiving support from Action for Children, a charity that exists to support vulnerable families across the UK. Former TV personality Lydia Bright, who starred in ITV’s The Only Way is Essex, campaigns for the charity and says more needs to be done.
She told ITV: “It’s important for us to open our eyes to the problems that are happening on our doorstep. Sometimes when we think of poverty we don’t always think it’s happening in the UK but child poverty is so prominent now more than ever and it’s heart-breaking that it’s happening in a country like ours.”
A quarter of children of working parents are planning to offer up their gift or pocket money to help their parents cover costs over Christmas, research has suggested. It comes as one in five working parents surveyed for Action for Children said they are worried they will not be able to afford presents.
Those supported by the charity include a family forced to pawn their electricals to buy food for the children and a child without a bed sleeping on blankets, it said. One little girl told a worker she is not asking for anything from Santa this year because it would make her mother “too sad”.
Action for Children said that as a charity that delivers children’s services, it is instead increasingly having to provide emergency relief to families as the cost-of-living crisis deepens. Helen Stockwell, who works for the charity says she’s never seen anything like it.
She said: “I have families who can’t get coats for the children and can’t afford to keep their children warm. People are genuinely worried really worried about what’s coming.”
