*This article was co-written by Cook Up manager Aqeelah Malek.
Cook Up provides free to use kitchen spaces in central and east London to cook, for anyone who feels they need a cooking space. This incudes, but is not limited to – anyone experiencing homelessness, sofa surfing, living in a hostel, night shelter or B&B. The project welcomes refugees and asylum seekers. The kitchens are welcoming spaces where participants can use their own flavours and creativity to produce delicious meals.
To mark London Challenge Poverty Week 2024 taking place from 14 -20 October, Aqeelah Malek (Cook Up Manager) and Sean McNamara (Cook Up Development Worker) have co-written this a blog reflecting on the experiences of one of the families who have come to the kitchen to cook and the need for all children and young people to have safe, secure homes where they can study.
We recently had our first Cook Up session since it was reported that UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accepted £20,000 worth of accommodation during the election period. He said this was so that his son could study for his GCSEs without being disturbed by journalists gathered outside their family home. He stated:
"I’m not complaining about that, that’s fine, but if you’re a 16-year-old trying to do your GCSEs, your one chance in life, I promised him we’d move somewhere, we’d get out of that house, and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying."
Discussing this with our long-serving volunteer, who is an ever-reassuring presence who often bakes biscuits and cakes to make our Cook Up participants feel at home, we realised we had all felt the same twinge of sadness at hearing this. We understood this sentiment, every parent wants to provide a peaceful environment for their child during this uniquely stressful time in their lives. At the same time, we had each thought of one family who have been attending Cook Up for a long time now. Their son was also completing his GCSEs in far from ideal circumstances.
When the family first started attending Cook Up, they were housed in hotels for extended periods of time whilst awaiting the outcome of their asylum claim. The family found us through an online search, they had been searching for a place to cook as the food provided in their accommodation was often very poor quality and not adequate. We have heard this sentiment often, with people telling us of the poor standard of food, not meeting basic nutrition needs of both adults and children. Many end up malnourished with poor mental and physical health; an issue highlighted in this recent report from Sustain.
When the family’s asylum claim was successful, they were forced to approach their council as homeless and have since been housed in short-term temporary accommodation. Now housed in different hotels, they must move near constantly; we have lost track of the number of times they have moved in the past year. The parents and two children share one room, often without internet and in some cases with only a small desk, too small even for a laptop to sit on. The mum would have to take the younger daughter out of the room to provide enough space for their son to concentrate on his studies. The council were made aware by the family that their son was taking his GCSEs and requested not to be moved during this period. In the mother’s words:
I would like to share that until my son’s final exam days, we moved nine times to different places, sometimes far from his school. We are still living in a small room that barely accommodates four people, without internet access or a quiet space for studying. We have had no financial or emotional support with moving during this difficult time.
Despite these challenges, my son managed to achieve good grades. However, I still feel that he was treated unfairly. He is one of the top-performing students, and I believe that if we had been in a better situation, he could have earned top marks in all subjects.
We are still facing these difficulties now with A-Levels, especially since my son has chosen to study Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. As you know, these are very challenging subjects that require intensive study.
They are far from alone in facing these challenges, over 150,000 children are living in short-term housing in England. They must navigate new journeys to school in an already stressful period as well as the extra bus fare, facing the stress of packing up and for the child the disruption of sleeping in an unfamiliar setting potentially before exams. Few families have the luxury of being donated alternative accommodation for their children, but some children might be able to rely on their family and have their child study at their grandma’s house (for example). However, many children in temporary housing do not have this. They may be placed away from family and other support networks in unknown areas and as refugees they are often very far from any family or other social support. We cannot really imagine the mental gymnastics parents have to go through to make sure their children face minimal disruption and are able to move in time, study and get to school the next morning whilst trying to maintain some level of normality – all in line with the movement order from councils often with very little notice. The cost of moving is another worry, families may make several trips carrying their belongings on trains or buses when their new accommodation could be over an hour or two away. The story as highlighted by the media of Keir Starmer’s use of another property during this period only stresses the vast difference in the ability to deal with difficult circumstances with varying levels of resources and privilege. We don’t begrudge this of any child, but could this same concern not be upheld for all children?
We wanted to share this not to criticise a parent making the best choice they could for their child. Rather we wanted to highlight the very different challenges some of our participants are facing, along with many other families in temporary accommodation, and call for the government to recognise the urgency of this issue. No child should grow up without a space to study, without a kitchen and home-cooked food, and without a stable home environment so they can flourish. Sadly, far too many children in England are in these circumstances and the problem only seems to be getting worse.