Longridge grandmother among group taking on hunger strike to campaign against poverty

Longridge-based 73-year-old taking part in a 48-hour hunger strike on 29/30 March

A grandmother from Longridge is amongst a group of Central Lancashire women going on hunger strike this weekend 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 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.”

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