Walking home from her local Pakistani takeaway, Subi Shah was hit by a wave of nostalgia. The scent of dhal and rice from her bag evoked powerful memories of her late mother's cooking. Yet, her mind was reeling from the price she had just paid: over £10 for a small portion of lentils, plain rice, and raita.
A Childhood of Staples, Now Unreachable
In the 1970s, Shah's mother fled a violent marriage with four young daughters. Living in a Women's Aid Refuge with little money, their diet became reliant on basic, affordable staples. "We had access to foods like rice, lentils, and chapati flour – a meal we ate so often, I began to resent it," Shah recalls. Her five-year-old self would complain about this 'poor people's food', yearning for the chicken curry and ice creams other children enjoyed.
Despite the hardship, her mother's skill at cooking from scratch meant the family never went hungry. The communal kitchen was often filled with the aromas of shared meals. When they later moved to a council flat in Peckham, kind neighbours like the Chopras would help source authentic Asian ingredients from Southall, then the only place in London to find them.
The Staggering Reality of Food Inflation
Today, the economic landscape is brutally different. Shah calculates that the raw ingredients for her takeaway meal would cost just £1.40 to make at home. The convenience premium has skyrocketed, mirroring a national crisis. Official figures show that by August 2025, beef prices had surged nearly 25%, butter by 19%, and chocolate by 15.4%.
This inflation has transformed once-affordable treats into luxuries. Shah notes paying £23 for a single portion of fish, chips, and mushy peas at a north London chippy recently. For countless families, even the cheap student meals of tinned tuna and lentils she relied on in the 1990s are now financially out of reach.
A Deepening National Emergency
The consequences are severe and measurable. The anti-poverty charity The Trussell Trust distributed 2.9 million emergency food parcels in the UK in 2024/25, a dramatic increase from five years prior. Teachers report pupils complaining of hunger pains, with the school lunch often their only proper meal of the day.
"It's depressing and deeply worrying," Shah states. "A balanced diet is vital for raising healthy children, yet reliable staples like rice, potatoes, and pasta are becoming unaffordable." She argues that the government must act to reduce the cost of raw foods and support practical solutions, such as 'from scratch' cookery clubs in schools for parents and children.
The article ends with a powerful, personal plea: We cannot let children go without even the 'poor people's meals' I used to dread. The call for intervention is clear, as the UK's cost-of-living crisis pushes basic nutrition beyond the means of a growing number of households.
