Free school meals: Teacher asks if any politicians go hungry at Christmas

A principal in Craigavon, County Armagh, has a question for politicians: how many of you will have to choose between heating your homes or eating over the Christmas holiday?

From a pupil fainting due to hunger to another without a bed at home, Nicola Stevenson has noticed "more need" at Brownlow Integrated College this year.

About 50% receive free school meals.

But after holiday hunger payments were axed in March, these pupils may not receive a hot meal for two weeks.

"Politicians don't see what we see, day in, day out," Mrs Stevenson told BBC News NI.

"I could speak to Jeffrey Donaldson or Michelle O'Neill and tell them some of the stories we have seen, but there's a disconnect there.

"How many politicians will have to choose between turning the heat on and feeding your families over Christmas? I know this will be a dilemma for many of the families in my school.

"Come into the school and see the children who come in hungry, with holes in their shoes, a shirt that God knows when it last saw water, come and see the real life children that need their help."

The school holiday food grant was scrapped by the Department of Education, to save money.

The grant of £27 per child each fortnight was to help the families of nearly 100,000 pupils entitled to free school meals with the cost of feeding them during school holidays.

Northern Ireland is now the only part of the UK where there is no support available during the school holidays.

It has been without a functioning executive for almost two years, after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) pulled out of Stormont in protest against post-Brexit trade rules.

It means senior civil servants are controlling government departments in Northern Ireland, but are restricted in what decisions they can take, in the absence of ministers.

"These people who are struggling are not just statistics, they're real people," said Mrs Stevenson.

"The families we see every day are really struggling to afford the basics, never mind luxuries.

"When you see a child that is hungry, you see how it affects their behaviour, their ability to focus and their mental and physical health, that is really real.

"How can anyone sit back and do nothing? We are trying to do everything in our power to help but I really, really worry about some families over the holidays.

"Politicians have to play their part but they can't do that when they're not even in government.

"These are problems affecting schools across Northern Ireland and we are being offered little to no support."

Brownlow Integrated College offers a free breakfast club for pupils and toast is available for anyone who is hungry throughout the day, at the school's expense.

Slightly more than half the school population is in receipt of free school meals but Mrs Stevenson says lots more children are coming to school hungry, so they are offered a free lunch too.

"A lot of our children are living in real poverty," said Mrs Stevenson.

"I'm not talking about not being able to afford a bottle of wine and a Chinese takeaway on a Friday night, I mean not being able to afford a tin of baked beans.

"Last week we had a mother in school who couldn't afford food, she had something like 16p in her purse, and luckily we had a couple of hampers that we happened to just have made up sitting so we were able to give her one to take home. Talk about being grateful.

"Most of our parents don't want handouts and they certainly don't want to ask for help and we have to respect that, but we will always try to support them where we can."

Mrs Stevenson said the rise of "the working poor" has been noticeable recently.

"We have working parents who cannot afford to come to school for a meeting because they can't afford the extra petrol in their car to come over," she said.

"They are doing their best but they are living from pay packet to pay packet."

To help struggling families at Christmas, staff brought in gifts and offered them to pupils, to be used as gifts.

"The children were able to come and choose a toy, wrap it themselves and then they know their little brother or sister is going to get something special on Christmas Day," said the principal.

"As educators, we can only do so much, particularly with such limited budgets, but we need help. These children need help."