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Poor mums skip meals so children can eat, survey shows

Colleen Lee

A Mothers' Day wish common to many low-income parents was to be able to buy enough food to feed their children, a welfare group said.

But rising food prices in recent months made it hard for this simple wish to come true, said Sze Lai-shan, a Society for Community Organisation planner.

A survey this month by the group found that 78.3 per cent of 138 lowincome mothers had only two meals a day in an attempt to save money to buy more food for their children.

Some 52.9 per cent of the respondents said their children did not have enough food and 65.9 per cent said they or their family members had become physically weaker because they had to cut back on food.

'The problem has also affected their psychological wellbeing. They may easily lose their temper and have arguments with their family members,' Ms Sze said.

The survey found 69.6 per cent of the mothers polled said family relationships had turned sour partly because of inflation. And 74.6 per cent of the respondents said they were 'very stressed' because of rising food prices. The mothers surveyed had a median household income of HK$6,500 a month.

The survey found that 56.5 per cent of the respondents said they bought expired food to save money, while 80.4 per cent said they ate congee or noodles instead of rice because the price of the staple had soared.

Lau Yuet-yin, a mother of two girls aged four and eight, said her husband earned about HK$6,000 a month as a warehouse worker.

'We eat only rice every day and hardly have any meat or vegetables. I feel I can't give the best to my daughters and they are getting thinner day by day,' she said.

Ms Sze called on the government to do more to stabilise rocketing prices and provide free lunches or breakfasts to students from lowincome families at school.

She also suggested the government give out food vouchers to needy families and review welfare payments every quarter.

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