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There are few more cheering sights than hungry children tucking in to a good meal.

But take away the bright colours and modern trappings and this could be a scene from a Third World refugee camp or Victorian poor house.

The youngsters are eating meals ­supplied by a charity because their families don’t earn enough to keep them well fed and healthy.

It is nothing more than a scandalous scene.

In today’s breadline Britain, ­unemployment and benefit cuts leave a growing number of kids hungry.

Malnutrition has left toddlers with the bone condition rickets, children of 11 the size of seven-year-olds and ­teenagers looking like skeletons.

The Sunday People joined ­children’s charity Kids Company for the evening meal service at its centre in Lambeth, South London.

Each day, the charity deals with dozens of cases of hungry children and reckons for more than three-quarters it is their only meal.

(Image: Darren Cool)

One of the children eating roast chicken, potatoes and veg is six-year-old Peter. He had arrived at school that ­morning in dirty clothes, crying because he was so hungry. He stopped when his teacher gave him a banana.

She buys a bunch every day because so many children in her class are ­suffering hunger pains. At lunch, Peter begged to finish other kids’ leftovers.

Last year, his mum was caught shoplifting food three times as she did not have enough to feed herself, Peter, his two-year-old brother and his elderly gran. Sadly, his story is not unusual.

Eight-year-old Jayne confessed she is often forced to steal food by her mother so they have enough to eat. She revealed she was beaten sometimes if she returned empty handed.

Her jobless mum owes a loan shark £600 which she can’t ­repay and the interest is ­spiralling out of control.

Jayne confided in her Kids Company mentor that her life was not worth living and she wished she was dead.

Huddled around a table next to her was ten-year-old Sarah, who was frantically stuffing a savoury pancake, topped with tomato and cheese, into her mouth.

For her, food is a luxury. She is ­hungry most of the day and comes to Kids Company so that she can get a hot meal.

On Wednesdays and weekends when the charity is shut, she often has ­nothing to eat at all.

Tuesday is her favourite day as her single mum gets “some money in the bank”.

Sarah said: “I think she gets about £70 and I always beg her to buy food but she often doesn’t. I think she needs it to pay bills instead.

“My brothers will ask for things like shoes and games but I always beg her to get food as I’m hungry.”

(Image: Darren Cool)

Sarah is one of six children living in a hostel with her mum and says the lack of food causes tensions and rows. On weekends she will sometimes visit a relative so she can eat.

She recalled how her mum once had just £4 to spend on a week’s grocery shop to feed them all.

Kids Company provides about 3,000 meals a week at its centres in North and South London, Bristol and Liverpool.

It also provides support and guidance for 36,000 vulnerable children, young people, families and adults.

Campaigns director Laurence Guinness said: “The rate of ­malnutrition is reaching worrying levels. Children are being denied fresh foods because families cannot afford to buy them.

“We’ve had 11-year-olds who look like seven-year-olds, toddlers with rickets and others with terrible teeth. We have a nurse who deals with all these cases.”

Each week, 30 new ­children come to the Lambeth centre of their own accord because a school pal has told them about it. Others are sent by parents who can’t ­afford to feed them. We have changed the names of the children mentioned in this story to protect their identities.

Laurence said: “We had a six-year-old come through the doors because they’d heard through a friend that we serve hot meals. When you see hungry ­teenagers looking skeletal you ­understand why they join a gang.”

Last year, a report by a coalition of UK churches found nearly 100,000 of Britain’s poorest children went hungry due to severe benefit sanctions.

It highlighted the damage of ­punishments such as stopping payments for a month or more for welfare ­claimants who fail to meet strict Jobcentre demands.

(Image: Darren Cool)

Niall Cooper of Church Action on Poverty, which helped produce the report, said: “If you commit a crime, no court is allowed to make you go hungry as a punishment. But if you’re late for a Jobcentre ­appointment they can remove your income and leave you unable to feed your family for weeks.”

Reading University researchers have interviewed children at Kids Company.

When asked how they deal with hunger, one child said: “I just want to sleep because when I go to bed hungry and sleep, I’m not hungry.”

Another told how it was normal to find empty ­cupboards at her home.

Support worker Susie Cunningham helps run cooking classes at the centre to teach kids skills.

She said: “We often have Ready Steady Cook-style classes where we put out random bits of food and get the children to concoct something. It’s because so many of them will have the bare minimum at home.

“Some come up with amazing dishes. It’s a brilliant lesson and it’s rewarding when they come back and tell us they managed to repeat a meal at home.”

(Image: Darren Cool)

Kids Company was founded in 1996 by businesswoman Camila Bat-manghelidjh to support children whose lives have been affected by ­poverty, abuse and trauma.

Its therapy centre helps kids with behaviour and mental health issues and runs gang prevention programmes. But the hot meals service is the biggest draw.

Meals vary daily and ­include lasagne, tuna pasta bake, chicken and couscous or fish fingers with mash and peas.

Susie added: “We also have a standard serving of veg and salad and a bowl with a new thing to try every day.”

Kids Company is helped by surplus food charity FareShare, catering company Compass and food outlets Whole Foods Market, Marks & Spencer, Booker and Premier Foods – but needs more backing.

It receives some central Government funding but none from Southwark or Lambeth boroughs, where the South London children it helps live.

Lambeth council insisted it works “incredibly hard to combat child ­poverty” and encourages employees to volunteer at charities such as Kids Company.

Kids Company spends £1.3million a year on meals, emergency food parcels, food vouchers and catering overheads. It has launched The Plate Pledge seeking £2 donations – the cost of a meal.

(Image: Darren Cool)

The charity has received around ­£30million of public funding since 2008 but raising cash has become such an ­issue three directors recently resigned.

Kids Company said: “The uncertainty of funding led to high levels of workplace stress, which was unsustainable.”

Laurence, who joined Kids Company five years ago, said: “Here, you’re ­exposed to really challenging and ­difficult circumstances of children who often tell you things and disclose things to you that are ­difficult to hear.

“The budgets for children’s services are being cut.

"These children have an incredible capacity to contribute to ­society but there has to be a better way than the current system.

“I’d invite any politician to spend an afternoon, at least, listening to them. Maybe it’d change their thinking.”