A MUM has told how she was so hungry she was forced to eat dog food because she could not afford to feed herself and her three kids.
The woman said she had been forced to go without for years and could see ribs poking out of her chest.
The woman, identified as Tiffanie, reveals her plight in a short film for the Magic Breakfast charity, shared Daily Mirror.
Tiffanie says: “Hunger is something that should not be going on in England.
“Many years that I have gone without — you could see the bones jutting out of my chest because I had three children and it’s me they’re relying on.
“I remember things being really bad, to the point where at times I ate dog food.”
Tiffanie recalls how she discovered that getting a job would mean being stripped of other benefits.
She said the financial help she was once entitled to was no longer available and it becomes clear when she was working she was still impoverished.
Tiffanie said: “In my opinion, the system is broken, it doesn’t seem to reflect the needs of the modern family.”
Another contributor to the YouTube film, No Child Too Hungry to Learn, community nurse Claire told her bills swallowed up all her money.
She said: “For the people that earn just enough not to get any help, I think that section of people struggle a lot.
“I have had sleepless nights thinking about whether I’m going to have enough for the shopping.
“That’s a terrible thing to worry about – how you’re going to feed your baby.”
A study published alongside the film shows eight out of 10 schools believe hunger among their pupils climbed in the past year.
Nine out of 10 schools also think poverty has increased, according to the Magic Breakfast Measuring and Monitoring Survey 2020/21.
Charity chief Lindsey Macdonald said: “The scale of poverty and hunger in the UK is at a critical level.”