Breadline Kids: breaking the cycle of food poverty
Becky lives in Hull with her mother and sister. The family has just £1.20 per person, per day, to spend on food. She created a manga cartoon to describe the challenges of living in food poverty.
Over 300,000 children were given food aid in the UK last year. Channel 4’s Dispatches, broadcast on 9 June, asks three children to describe what it feels like when the cupboards are sometimes bare.
Becky, 14, lives in Hull with her mother and younger sister, Rosie, who is eight. Becky’s family has just £1.20 per person, per day, to spend on food.
In the manga cartoon above, Becky describes how her family overcame the stigma of using food banks.
“I want to break the cycle,” she says. “I want to make sure I have a decent future for myself and my own family.”
She continues: “I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. It can be a release. I mean, you can draw your emotions on a sheet of paper. Sometimes you can’t write them down, you can’t speak them – but you can definitely draw them on paper.”
Breadline Kids is broadcast on Channel 4 at 19.35 on 9 June
