Schoolchildren and parents shoplifting to feed themselves and their families

A joint investigation by The Independent and Evening Standard has revealed an escalating hunger crisis among children in families who live in poverty but are not eligible for free school meals.

Headteachers and youth workers say this is leading to increasingly desperate behaviour from some children and mothers who are struggling with the rising cost of living, including distressed pupils stealing food from local supermarkets and the school canteen to stave off hunger and mothers resorting to shoplifting, risking a criminal record, to feed their families.

Headteachers say that the group causing them “most alarm” are not children from the very poorest families, but the layer just above that – those who do not qualify for free school meals and risk going a whole day without food or with wholly inadequate lunches.

Currently, 800,000 children in England live in households on universal credit that do not qualify for free school meals because their annual household earnings (excluding benefits) exceed £7,400, according to the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG). This low threshold – of just £617 a month after tax – is applied by the government irrespective of the number of children in the family, and mostly impacts low-income working families.

Headteachers also report children bringing in empty lunch boxes to avoid the shame of arriving at school with nothing and pupils “cleaning the canteen” to be allowed a free school meal.

Josh is one such child prompting concern. He was going hungry but he did not want to stress his mother by asking for lunch money. The 15-year-old from south London had seen the eviction notice from their landlord and overheard anxious telephone conversations about mounting debts. His mother worked part-time as a school dinner lady but had become increasingly fretful as the rising cost of living overwhelmed her. It had meant no money for breakfast for Josh and his younger sister, Eva, but also, nothing for lunch – his single mother’s low earnings meant they lived in poverty but exceeded the narrow eligibility criteria for free school meals.

Out of desperation, Josh did something he had never done before. He began to shoplift from his local supermarket. Sandwiches, crisps, snacks. He never stole high-value items and always just enough to stem the pangs. He got away with it at first but then the supermarket got wise and banned him. Again, he faced being hungry every day until dinner and, again, he did not want to burden his mother.

He started to steal from the school canteen instead. That was when his plight became known to Jack Price, lead youth worker from Lives Not Knives, a charity engaged by Josh’s school and several others in Croydon to give support to around 70 disadvantaged pupils.

Price, 24, says: “None of the kids I see get breakfast at home, but the ones I’m most worried about are those who don’t get lunch either. Around 20 of the 70 I support have resorted to stealing food. At first, I was shocked but not anymore. It’s become much more common. As the cost of living escalates, it’s not the poorest kids who are most at risk but the group just above them – youngsters who live in poverty but don’t get free school meals.”

The government currently provides 1.9 million children in England with free school meals, including universal provision for all pupils from reception to year 2, but strict eligibility criteria apply to pupils from year 3 and above. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have expanded access to free school meals more than any government in recent decades. We are also investing up to £24m in our National School Breakfast Programme, which provides free breakfasts in [some] schools in [some] disadvantaged areas.”

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Yet there are 800,000 children in England who, like Josh, live in households on universal credit but miss out on free school meals, according to the Child Poverty Action Group. A spokesperson for the organisation said: “This low threshold means that many children from working families in poverty aren’t entitled to free school meals, despite their parents being unable to meet the costs of food.”

Headteachers and charity support workers say they are most concerned about this group of children and some express alarm that hunger is forcing some despairing children into criminality.

One assistant headteacher at a south London secondary school with 1,000 pupils says she regularly catches students stealing from the canteen. “Students stealing food has grown to around 15 incidents a day. Typically, they take a drink or several cookies, usually something with high sugar content. I challenged a kid once and he looked like he was going to cry. Now I turn a blind eye. They are taking a big risk because to be caught in front of your peers is humiliating. Around 30 per cent of our students get free school meals but a further 50 per cent are in poverty but miss out. They are the ones I worry about.

“You feel those kids who steal are desperate and haven’t eaten since the night before. I regularly observe students, including our prefects, taking on jobs cleaning the canteen so they can be allowed a free meal at the end of lunch by the catering staff. It’s outrageous that children should have to do this. People outside schools have no idea how bad things are, and in my 28 years in this profession, it’s never been as bad as it is now,” she adds.

Other headteachers have reported instances of mothers caught stealing, risking a criminal record to feed their children.

Nicholas Capstick, headteacher of Drove Primary School in Swindon, says: “I was approached by a mum who broke down in tears. When I asked why, she told me she had been arrested for shoplifting in a supermarket to feed her family. She was caught with spaghetti shoved up her sleeve, spaghetti tomato sauce in her pocket and a small loaf of bread stuffed under her coat. These are not exactly high-value items. She said it was her first time.”

He adds: “She came to me completely humiliated and afraid that she would bring shame to her children and community. She works as a part-time cleaner and was worried she would lose her job. I was able to talk to the police and she was cautioned but not charged. This mother is in her thirties with three children, one in primary school and two in secondary school, and her husband is also on a low income. I feel disgusted to live in a society that could allow this to happen to hardworking parents who graft their socks off.”

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At Spring Community Hub, a charity in Peckham that offers low-income families a food bank, holiday activities and support, CEO Felicia Boshorin has also seen cases of distraught mothers stealing to feed their families. She said: “A single mother with four children aged 9 to 17 came to me last week because her freezer had broken down, which put her into debt to fix it. She needed food but she didn’t have money, so she went to the supermarket and shoplifted. They caught her but she fought her corner and the supermarket took pity and let her off.

“When she came out of the store, another customer who witnessed the incident asked, ‘Why did you do that?’ She said, ‘To feed my kids.’ The customer was so upset, they gave her £45. She was risking a police record to feed her children. She is not the only parent to tell us they’ve had to steal to survive.”

For Jack Price, helping pupils who aren’t eating is not simple, because they are mostly too proud to admit it. “When you ask if they’ve eaten, they put on a brave face and say things like, ‘I’ll eat when I get home.’ We see the effect on behaviour with children getting listless and unable to concentrate. They are in school but the thing that’s on their mind is food or money,” he says.

“I don’t think any child wants to steal food. These kids should not be vilified. It’s a symptom of a serious societal problem that needs urgent government action.”

Ellie Williamson, 23, a fellow youth worker from Lives Not Knives, who supports disadvantaged children at three other schools in Croydon, says she has seen young people who had never been involved with criminality before make bad choices because of financial cost of living pressures at home.

“Take Anton, he is 14, he doesn’t get free school meals because his single mother earns above the threshold, but the cooker doesn’t work at home and if his nan can’t give him pennies, he’s going hungry. I have seen him go from a lovely, balanced and respectful young man to being obsessed about money. It’s led to him stealing and taking big risks with his future. I read him the riot act but he turned to me angrily and said, 'I’m not stupid, I know what I’m doing.' Then he started crying.

"He knew I was right. He was trying to weigh up his options and he said, ‘But if I do it your way, I won’t have money for food or things, so what must I do?’ It broke my heart. He’s concluded, aged 14, that food is not guaranteed for him – that he has to turn to crime to eat.”

Children’s names have been changed