Hastings families should learn lessons in family budgets

How sad that child poverty is rising in Hastings.

Students should be taught cooking on a budget in school. Being able to feed a child on a very small income is not impossible and home cooked meals are a great deal more appetising and nutritious than takeaways day-in, day-out.

My mother was a war widow with 3 children under 5. She sent my brother with the eight shillings a week family allowance to live with granny. My other brother and l fared well on a daily school dinner, breakfast and tea were toast with Echo margarine and a cup of tea.

We enjoyed apples when my brother went scrumping and an orange at Christmas.

School holidays saw us on bread and marge. Mum worked to pay the rent and and what little food she could afford, mainly eggs

There must have been many families in the same situation but we never thought we were deprived.

My brothers and l all gained excellent qualifications.

Sorting out the poverty problem locally needs to start within the family. Sadly in society today people are brought up to expect social services to provide for their every need.

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton: In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.