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A neighbour of mine, who felt mortified that she had to collect a free school meal parcel for her child received this - complete with rotting carrots & bread with a suspicious sell by date. I rarely compare 19th attitudes to poverty with current ones, but this say workhouse to me
I'll tell you why it says workhouse (or New Poor Law) - those who went into the workhouse were punished for being in need and having nowhere else to turn. They were expected to feel mortified, because it was thought that if it was too easy to rely on charity, people wouldn't work
Workhouse inmates received food, but the Guardians made sure the food wasn't filling or nice. You were always hungry. the skilly (or watered gruel) was often contaminated, the bread was stale, what meat you got was of a very poor quality and bought at mark down prices.
In the records of Lambeth Union, I read page after page of notes discussing how filthy cuts of mutton were being supplied in barrels from Australia (before refrigeration). No one wanted to spend too much money on feeding the poor, because they didn't deserve it.
So, here we are in the 21st century in the middle of a global pandemic where people are losing their livelihoods & struggling. And here we are humiliating these same people for suffering misfortune; telling them they can eat crap because without a pay cheque they no longer matter
