One in four West Midlands teachers report having to personally provide food for children
A study by the food waste charity FareShare found that teachers were having to give food to pupils out of concern for their wellbeing.
A report commissioned by charity FareShare has found that 26% of teachers in the West Midlands region are having to bring food from home to give to children due to concern that they were not getting enough food.
The organisation focuses on taking the 10 billion meals' worth of food that is unnecessarily wasted in the UK every year and redistributing it to those who are forced to go without.
Demand for its services are growing.
The study, which uses data collected during the last school year, also found that 263,000 children in the region were living in poverty in 2023.
Head of Commercial for FareShare Midlands Laura Spencer says the burden of keeping children nourished is falling on teachers as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
"Teachers are genuinely concerned about the welfare of their pupils and the fact that they're not able to access good quality food when they're at home because families are struggling to make ends meet."
Ms Spencer also says that FareShare is looking to collaborate with the government and food and agricultural industries where solutions may be found.
"For farmers it can sometimes be cheaper to waste food than it is to redistribute but that makes no sense when the food is good to eat and there are people that could eat that food."
"There are many areas that we want to explore and we are calling on the government to work with us to do more and to get more food out to the people who are in desperate need and to those children that are currently going without."