The scale and severity of pupils' health issues has worsened in the past year as food prices have risen to their highest level in 45 years, according to research.
Nurses reported children squirrelling away school meals to take home to their parents, while a growing number were being taken to A&E after fainting due to hunger. An excluded pupil was recently reported to police by his school for climbing over a barbed wire fence to take home "slops" from the waste food bins.
"I'm not overdramatising at all when I say we've got starving, hungry, sad, worried children committing crimes so their families can eat," said Sharon White, CEO of the School and Public Health Nurses Association (Saphna). "This could have lifelong, far-reaching, consequences. It's horrendous, gut wrenching."
This story is from the June 29, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the June 29, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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