TEACHERS and school staff in Colchester have reported children are “near-on starving” due to the cost-of-living crisis.

Colchester council's housing and communities boss Julie Young, who represents Greenstead, spoke of her experiences in the ward as families feel the impact of rising energy bills and inflation.

Speaking to the Gazette exclusively before the first meeting of the new administration’s cabinet on June 8, she said: “Certainly what we hear from people in the education sector is that by the end of the month children are near-on starving frankly.

“Those children on benefits can get free school meals, but there are a lot of other children who are not on benefits that are equally hungry.

“We’ve given out so many foodbank vouchers in Greenstead it’s unreal.”

Ms Young said she took a foodbank voucher to a Greenstead resident recently, informing the woman about a community ‘free fridge food’ project.

She said: “She asked me: ‘what else is there?'.

“I think that is the question we are faced with: ‘What else is there?’.

“I think we [as a cabinet] are all signed up to working with partners to make sure we’re giving residents as much support as we possibly can to cope with energy bills and food poverty.”

Council leader David King said the new cabinet faced a challenge in making sure people in need were aware of the schemes which are there to help.

He said: “If you previously managed all the time, paid your bills, got to the end of the month with a bit left, now for the first time there’s going to be an increasing number of people who weren’t affected who are now affected – and that’s a big challenge.”