“They know mum might go without her tea to make sure they have something.” That’s the reality for children in Greater Manchester.
Headteacher Steve Marsland says he hears stories like this from young pupils all the time. "This summer is going to tip so many families living on the breadline over the edge,” the head at Russell Scott Primary School, in Denton, says.
And is it any wonder in Greater Manchester - a region where one in four children are living in poverty?
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In Manchester that statistic is even worse with almost half - 42 percent - in poverty.
For their parents, it’s a daily struggle.
In Wythenshawe, one mum struggled so much to make ends meet - despite working at a shop five days a week and at a pub on Friday and Saturday evenings - that she had to light candles after running out of electricity.
The following day she spent £10 of her last £14 on electricity and the rest on dinner. But the pizza burnt in the oven while she helped her son with his homework.
Her local councillor told a meeting : "She told me how she sat on the kitchen floor and cried uncontrollably, so angry with herself that she couldn't do more and so frustrated that despite all of her hard work she was left in this position."
In the first days of his premiership, Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a major speech promising affordable housing, public services to support families and help the most vulnerable, and a boost for culture. He also promised to tackle crime and to improve connectivity between northern cities.
But despite those pledges, things have got much worse in the years since he took to the podium at the Museum of Science and Industry.
Here in Manchester a whopping 40.9 percent of children (37,502) qualified for free school meals in the city as of January - though there is no official help in place to help them over the summer holidays.
Meanwhile inflation in Manchester is at 10.6% - well above the 9.4% in London. And thousands of families across the North are still held back by non-existent transport and a lack of jobs and skills.
With inflation chipping away at their living standards, the idea that their communities are being 'levelled up' must seem laughable to many.
So with the current PM on his way out, how do the two hopefuls in line to take over his job plan to change things?
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have made many of the right noises about their commitment to Levelling Up the country - but it's been far from a top priority in a debate largely focused on tax cuts and culture wars.
And with Michael Gove abruptly sacked from his role in charge of that key Tory policy, it's alarming to read multiple reports in the national press that the agenda could be junked altogether.
For what it’s worth, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham says Mr Gove was ‘the one minister who was doing his job and doing it properly’ and has called for him to be reinstated. The next Levelling Up minister - if there is one - could have a hard time convincing Northern mayors they mean business.
It’s clear after a pandemic which hit the North’s towns, villages and cities harder than those in the South East, the argument for taking strong, concerted action is more powerful than ever.
Perhaps, as reports suggest, Tory strategists are worried the perception of favouring neglected parts of the North will cost them as they defend seats in the affluent South East from the Liberal Democrats.
But bridging the gap between London and the neglected regions is a job of decades and - if the example of East and West Germany is anything to go by - trillions, rather than billions of pounds.
Lancashire MP Jake Berry, who leads the Northern Research Group of Tory backbenchers, includes in his four asks of the next PM a ‘levelling up formula’ which would equalise government funding and ensure the North is not left behind.
He also proposes changes to give communities in the North the ability to succeed on their own terms, including a greater emphasis on vocational training.
Some changes have already been made to the Green Book - the Treasury’s method of deciding where public money should be spent - but more reform is needed if towns and rural areas aren’t to be held back.
Above all, central government must stop hoarding power and press the accelerator on devolution, giving elected mayors with strong local mandates the ability to take control of their post-16 education systems. It would mean young people would be equipped with the skills they need to get well-paid local jobs here and not have to move away for a better life.
The North deserves to know where Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss stand on these issues.
As Jake Berry puts it: “Rishi and Liz cannot simply pledge and forget about the North. The time for talking is over, we in the North demand action.”
Major news titles across the North of Engand are today putting the following key questions to the two candidates:
What will you do to make sure the commitments made to the North by your predecessors as Prime Minister are kept?
The average worker in the North is 50% less productive than one in London, what will you do to address this widening gap?
What will you do to address spiralling rates of child poverty in parts of Northern England?
How far will you go to give Northern leaders control over education and skills, transport and health budgets currently held by Westminster, and will you give them more powers to raise or lower taxes to boost local economies?
Will you retain a government department responsible for tackling regional inequalities with a Cabinet-level Minister for whom this is their main job?
We’ll publish the responses later this week.
And with Labour making the case that they’re now the true party of levelling up, we’ll be asking them to answer too.
As Conservative members in the North of England weigh up who to choose as the next Prime Minister, they should be looking not just at who might help them win the next election but their vision for the people of our proud regions.
Michael Gove said last week that levelling up was not just a social mission but also ‘an economic mission, because if different parts of the United Kingdom are all performing as effectively as the South East and London, then we would be the strongest economy in Europe’.
Anything but full-throated commitment to this agenda would be a betrayal of the Northern voters who backed Boris Johnson in 2019.
But worse than that, it would be a sad admission of defeat for the idea that everyone in this country should have a fair chance of success, no matter where they live.
Read more of today's top stories here
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