There is a mum in the Cotswolds who creeps about her living room. Silently when her children aren’t looking, she gathers up toys around the edges. Maybe a teddy bear, maybe a colouring book. She’s tired after work, but she’s picking them up now so she can hide and wrap them later. By the time Christmas comes around, her children might think they’re new.
You wouldn’t expect this mum to need a food bank. She is not a single parent. Both she and her partner are in work. They don’t live in a council house; they have a fixed rate mortgage in the leafy heart of southern England. This family didn’t want to speak out for fear of judgement, but the old stereotype of who goes hungry is changing. We need to catch up with the new reality of the working poor.
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