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A heartbreaking letter handed to a youth worker highlights the harrowing nature of food poverty in Liverpool.

The letter was written by a desperate mum-of-three and given to a member of staff at Croxteth Gems Community Association by her seven-year-old daughter.

It was penned during the half-term holiday and highlights the importance of the ECHO’S Share Your Lunch Holiday Hunger appeal, which aims to help feed thousands of hungry children during this year’s summer holidays.

The letter reads:

Please can you help. Is there any food banks where I can get some food for 4 days as I’m not getting money till Monday and with the children being on school holidays I have not a lot of food left to last us. Thanks.

Would appreciate any small amount of food would help xx

Jean Hannah, youth and play co-ordinator at Croxteth Gems, says: “It was handed to another member of staff here, who burst into tears when she passed it on to me. She told me she was going to go home to give her own mum a hug.

“It made me feel sick when I read it. You never get immune to the hardship so many people face. That’s why the ECHO’s Share Your Lunch campaign is so important.

“A few years ago we were sending food and clothing parcels to Third World countries – now we are giving them to people who live here. During the ECHO’s Share Your Lunch Christmas campaign, some people said to me ‘Get away. There are no kids around here who are starving’. But there ARE kids who are starving – there are kids who are starving ALL the time!”

(Image: Colin Lane)

Thousands of children across our region are set to go hungry this summer as school holidays kick in and school meals disappear.

That’s why we have launched the ECHO’s Share Your Lunch Holiday Hunger appeal.

We urgently need your help to raise £10,000 to help ensure no child in Merseyside goes hungry this summer.

Through our partners at the social enterprise Can Cook, that will then provide 5,000 nutritious cooked meals for hungry children, so please go to our Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/liverpool-echo-summer-share-your-lunch and give what you can.

During each and every school holiday, Croxteth Gems hosts a playscheme at their centre in Armill Road which includes a free breakfast and lunch for children. And Jean Hannah reveals: “Two years ago, this used to be for between 25 and 30 children – now it’s 70 children a day, which is the most we can do. So during the summer holidays we will be looking to serve 140 meals a day for five days a week over six weeks – that’s 700 a week and 4,200 for the summer period.”

Can Cook will be providing Croxteth Gems with approximately 1,800 of these meals if the Share Your Lunch appeal can reach its target.

Jean adds: “It’s soul-destroying that we have to do this but that is the reality, and I would defy anyone to turn away a hungry child. It’s also upsetting to see kids who are not familiar with some commonplace food items – like the child who didn’t know what spaghetti bolognese was – while you regularly see children who look unhealthy because of a lack of food. There is no worse pain than hunger and children cannot be focused on their school work if they return from their holidays having not eaten properly during the summer.”

(Image: Colin Lane)

Big-hearted ECHO readers responded magnificently to our Christmas Share Your Lunch campaign, helping us smash through the £10,000 Just Giving target, but Jean stresses: “The problem of food poverty didn’t disappear on December 26.

“It is happening 365 days a year, so I would ask everyone to please give what they can. If we don’t do it who else could we turn to? I’ve always thought Liverpool people take a collective responsibility for what goes on and do everything they can to help others. That’s why I think this is the best city in the world.”

Jean, who is also currently stockpiling school uniforms because there are no longer school uniform clothing vouchers available, adds: “The summer holidays present parents with much more of a financial burden than Christmas does. And with no free school meals through the six weeks of holidays, a family of four children need to find the money to pay for an extra 20 meals a week.

“Meanwhile, children naturally have expectations of their parents to do nice things with them over the holidays – like take them on days out.

“It does make you angry when you hear about the supposed ‘complex reasons’ why people use food banks. If you are put on a zero hours contract and have zero hours work one particular week it means you will have zero wages –and I don’t think there’s anything complex about that.

(Image: Colin Lane)

“Zero hours contracts, benefit sanctions, the bedroom tax and the length of time people have to wait for benefits all contribute to food poverty – and most of what we are dealing with here is in-work poverty.”

Here’s how you can help....

It’s so easy to donate. Just visit the Share Your Lunch Holiday Hunger appeal page and give what you can afford.

Alternatively send a cheque to Can Cook Kitchen, Unit 20, The Matchworks, Garston, Liverpool, L19 2RF.

Other ways you can help:

Having a barbecue? Have a whip round among your guests and donate the proceeds to the campaign.

Eating out? Ask the restaurant if they are backing the Share Your Lunch Holiday Hunger appeal and agree to give.

Business backing? Many Merseyside businesses and organisations pledged their direct support recently following a special event at LEAF in Bold Street. Contact Laura McCumiskey or Robbie Davison at Can Cook to join the growing list of caring companies who are now joining the fight against food poverty.