Gran's hunger strike over child food poverty

Maria Gee says she has been motivated by her own mother's experience of poverty back in the 1950s

A grandmother from Lancashire is going on hunger strike as part of a campaign to end levels of poverty that leave some families without enough to eat.

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, from Longridge, said she had 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.

Ms Gee, who has three children and six grandchildren, has chosen to stop eating for the entire weekend.

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.

Ms Gee told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she knew nothing of what her mum went through when she was a child.

Maria has been cutting down on food to reduce the shock to her system

"My mother was left homeless with three small children," she said.

"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."

She said it was "a disgrace", adding: "What's happened in the last 60 years that we still haven't sorted this out?"

On the practicalities of the hunger strike itself, she said she had been cutting down on food to reduce the shock to her system but was 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," she said.

"For them, fasting isn't a finite thing it's become a way of surviving."

A government spokesperson has previously told the BBC it was "taking action" through the Child Poverty Taskforce, which was "developing an ambitious strategy to give children the best start in life".