Thousands of North East parents struggling to feed kids during Half-Term

School holidays are putting pressure on thousands of North East mums and dads, who are struggling to feed their kids an extra meal every day.

New research shows, in our region, 29 953 children were fed through foodbanks last year, with parents relying on food parcels to put dinner on the table.

But when schools are closed, kids miss out on a hot meal every day, with mums and dads forced to make supplies stretch further,

Caroline Todd is the manager of Darlington King’s Church foodbank; she tells us more;

“Obviously, children are getting that one hot main meal at school and they can actually lose that when the school holidays are upon us.

“And this is when people tend to really struggle as well.”

Caroline explains it’s not just needing the extra food which puts pressure on parents during the holidays –many are embarrassed for their children to find out where the food is coming from,

She reveals one mum told her she couldn’t collect her weekly food bag as she didn’t want to have to bring her kids in with her;

“Well the children are off and I’m going to struggle, but I don’t want to bring the children down into a foodbank, I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it in this week.

“So you know there’s also that side, she needs to come in with her family, but then she can’t.”

She says they have seen a recent increase in users over the last few months, going from between 40-70 people coming through their doors a week to up to 100 users needing help to feed themselves and their families.

But a campaign, launching across the North East is hoping to change all this – the People’s Kitchen Soup Kitchen in Newcastle is backing a drive to give a million people easier access to food by 2020.

Peter Samual is from the soup kitchen, he tells us the numbers add up to him;

“That number doesn’t really surprise me, we’re supplying 40 000 meals a year, it is about 120 meals a night.

Through the project they’re trying to challenge people’s opinions of poverty;

“The public perception is when they see beggars on the street, that might be the main public perception of poverty and hunger.

“But in fact it’s more hidden than that, because you often won’t see the people who come to our kitchen.

For help you can visit the Kings Church Foodbank’s website at http://kingschurchdarlington.org/foodbank/ or from the People’s Kitchen website http://www.peopleskitchen.co.uk/