Cost of living: Children ‘getting food poisoning’ as parents turn fridge off to save money

A food bank says struggling families are taking measures to keep up with the cost of living crisis.

Charities are urging the government to provide more support (PA)

Children are suffering from food poisoning because parents are switching off fridges at night amid the rising cost of living, according to a foodbank.

Truro Foodbank, in Cornwall, said it had received reports of children having stomach upsets from eating meals that had been incorrectly stored.

Parents are being forced to find ways to save on energy usage as the cost of living continues to rise.

“The parents are not washing [school] uniforms as much as they used to to save energy and water,” foodbank manager Simon Fann told BBC.

“But also reports of children having upset stomachs or, in worse cases, food poisoning because some parents are turning the fridges and freezers off overnight.”

The country is facing record high costs in energy (PA )

Truro Foodbank is one of the 1,300-odd supported by the Trussell Trust who has itself provided more than 2.1 million food parcels to people across the UK in the past year.

It is the first time the foodbanks within the charity’s networks have provided more than two million parcels - aside from during the height of the pandemic between 2020 and 2021.

More than 830,000 supply packs provided were for children, marking an 15% increase from the previous year.

The Trussell Trust has warned the demand for foodbanks could increase as the cost of living crisis continues, as it pleaded with the government to provide more support to families.

The calls were echoed by Action for Children who has urged the government to increase the child element of Universal Credit, and increase benefits with the increase of inflation.

The charity said struggling households were now skipping meals, refraining from turning the lights on and wearing coats indoors as they couldn’t afford the rising price of energy.

“The worst pain and misery of the cost of living crisis is being felt by children in low-income families, yet the government is refusing to target help for these children or accept that it needs to rethink its huge cut to Universal Credit,” its director of policy, Imran Hussain, said.

More than half of the people supported by Action for Children’s crisis fund are on Universal Credit, suggesting families were becoming increasingly unable to meet the basic living costs, it said.

The fund was set up two years ago as a one-off for struggling households during the pandemic but has evolved into a permanent help.