Parents struggle to feed children more during school holidays

A new YouGov survey of parents whose children be attending school in the coming academic year has found that 28 per cent of respondents said they are finding it difficult to afford their school uniforms and other back to school supplies.

The results also show that that more than 1 in 10 parents with children in school say that they typically find it difficult to afford to feed their children during term time – a figure which rises to 19 per cent during school holidays.

As well as this, a quarter of parents with children going to school this year say that they have previously had to skip meals to ensure they could feed their children instead. 

With 67 per cent of those skipping meals saying the most recent time they did so was within the last twelve months, this means that around one in six of parents with children in school have had to skip meals this year to be certain they could afford to feed their family.

A separate survey conducted for FareShare by TeacherTapp found that 28 per cent of teachers across England have brought in food for pupils in the last term, which is up from 26 per cent in summer term 2023.