'My mum starved for me in the 1950s - now I'm going on hunger strike in protest that it's still happening'

Maria Gee has joined a nationwide protest which will see her abstain from food when many will be feasting to celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday.

The 73-year-old says she has been motivated by her own mother’s experience of poverty back in the 1950s - and her disgust at the fact that some parents are facing exactly the same struggles in modern-day Britain.

More than half a dozen locals taking part in the 24-hour hunger strike will operate a pop-up stall in Preston Market between 10am and 3pm on Saturday, where they will be inviting passers-by to help create a display featuring the names of children close to their hearts who they would hate to see hungry.

The event is part of the Mother’s Manifesto movement, which is calling on the government to ensure all children in the UK have enough to eat - by introducing an “essentials guarantee" benefit that covers the cost of the necessities of life and by rolling out free lunches for pupils at all state schools.

Maria - who has three children and six grandchildren - has chosen to stop eating for the entire weekend. She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) she knew nothing of what her mum went through when Maria herself was a child.

“My mother was left homeless with three small children. I don't have memories of it being a hard time for me, because when you're young, you have nothing to compare it to.

“But later, I learned her story and I know that she went hungry and survived just on cups of tea. She even took up smoking just to stave off the hunger pains, because cigarettes were very cheap back then.

“And here we are, decades later, and some mothers are still going hungry to make sure that their children have enough to eat. What's happened in the last 60 years that we still haven't sorted this out? It's just a disgrace,” Maria said.

She hopes people will show their support at the market on Saturday and help shine a light on what is often hidden suffering.

“We're inviting them to put the name of a child they love on a little pink heart we've made, then take a selfie holding it and put it on their socials with the hashtag ‘mothers manifesto’. We’ll then add it to our treescape display.

“I hope it will encourage people to think about the issue and the sacrifices that mothers often have to make so their children go to bed on a full stomach,” Maria added.

On the practicalities of the hunger strike itself, she says she has been cutting down on food to reduce the shock to her system - but is conscious that her period without sustenance will at least come to a definite and relatively rapid end.

“What we will do is very small-scale in comparison with what some mothers have to go through. For them, fasting isn't a finite thing - it's become a way of surviving.”

The event in Preston is one of several taking place around the country this weekend, designed to complement a five-day hunger strike being staged outside Parliament.

Emma Hopkins, organiser of the Mothers Manifesto movement, said: “In cities across the UK, we see mothers and fathers making impossible choices every day - skipping meals to feed their children, cutting back on essentials and still coming up short. We cannot stand by while families suffer.

"We are calling on the government to act now and to address the structural inequality driving food poverty.”

Anybody who cannot attend the strike event in Preston can sign up to the manifesto’s aims at mothersmanifesto.com.

MAKING ENDS MEET

The Mothers Manifesto wants to see the “essentials guarantee” they are calling for incorporated into the Universal Credit system.

It is based on a concept developed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) which states that, at a minimum, the benefit should “protect people from going without essentials”.

Although an independent process would be charged with setting and reviewing that minimum level, JRF analysis suggests it would need to be at least £120 per week for a single adult and £205 per week for a couple.

Under the current system, those rates presently stand at £92 and £145, respectively, for the over 25s.