Child Poverty in London Summer 2022

Parents struggling to feed children during the summer holidays have been left in tears after being turned away from overwhelmed summer holiday clubs. The organiser of a club in Lambeth said demand for for places was “higher than ever” and parents were being turned away at the gates. “I have so many children I’m not able to take and those people are coming to my gate asking if I can take their children,” said Shannon McNab, organiser of the Summer of Food and Fun programme in south London. “Parents are crying saying ‘please, please, you must take my child I don’t have any other support.’ Laurence Guinness, Chief Exec of The Childhood Trust described how the cost of living crisis means that some parents can’t even afford to boil potatoes because of the high cost of energy and warned that without sustained support children living in poverty could end up in hospital with malnutrition.