'Breaking my heart': Dinner lady breaks down after denying lunches to UK school children

At an Enough is Enough rally in Manchester, a dinner lady told PoliticsJoe that she was dreading October when she will go back to work and would have to deny lunches to school children.

UK residents will see an 80 per cent increase in their annual household energy bills, the country’s energy regulator announced Friday, following a record 54 per cent spike in April. That will bring costs for the average customer from 1,971 pounds ($2,332) a year to 3,549 pounds.

The latest price cap, the maximum amount that gas suppliers can charge customers per unit of energy, will take effect on 1 October, 2022, just as the cold months set in. And bills are expected to rise again in January to 4,000 pounds.

To blame for the increase is the soaring price of wholesale natural gas triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is driving up consumer prices and roiling economies across Europe that rely on the fuel for heating homes and generating electricity.

That includes the United Kingdom, which has the highest inflation rate among the Group of Seven wealthiest democracies and seen disruptive strikes for months as workers push for pay to keep pace with the increasingly expensive cost of living.

The woman, who has not been named, was speaking at Enough is Enough rally on 30 August, 2022, at Manchester cathedral when she broke down in tears describing the child poverty at the Lancashire school where she works.

“Just before the summer holidays, when the cost of living crisis really started kicking off, I just noticed I was spending as much time taking food away from children as do serving it,” she told PoliticsJoe.

“To be honest, it’s not what I took the job for. I never dreamt I would be telling children ‘You can’t have that, you’ve no money in your account’,” she added.

She said that when she first started her role at the school, she would have to turn around one child a month away.

“Parents might forget to put money on at the beginning of the month, and you get that,” she added.

Now, though, the dinner lady said she was turning away some 10-15 children without money “every single day, every single shift”

“It’s breaking my heart,” she said, breaking down in tears. “They’re in a queue full of all their peers and other schoolchildren, and it’s humiliating for them.”

“They just look at you like ‘well, what am I going to eat’,” to which she said she responds with “I can’t give you anything, I’m sorry’

With the summer holidays drawing to a close, the dinner lady said she was “dreading” returning to work.”

“It’s getting to the point where I don’t think I can be doing this job anymore,” she added. “I didn’t take the job on to starve children.”

“You know, something has to give, and I just don’t think it should be children’s spirits, you know?" the lady said.

With inputs from agencies

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