An 11-year-old student became dizzy in class on Monday. He also had a headache – probably sick. The teacher called his mother, if she could pick him up? “May I speak to the parent counselor?” the mother asked. She told the parent counselor: “He is not sick. Sorry, but our money ran out on Friday. We didn’t eat anything all weekend.”
Director Arina Rook and her colleagues at De Catamaran primary school in Rotterdam are still stunned. They have known poverty at this school for a long time (during the first corona lockdown it turned out that 4,200 primary school students in Rotterdam did not have a computer at home), but this goes a step further. A student falls over because he hasn’t eaten for three days. Someone from school, says Rook, has bought groceries for the family. “That was presented inconspicuously, so that nobody should be ashamed.”
Last week in the ‘parent’s room’ after the summer holidays, at the primary school Kleurpracht on the border of the Zaan districts of Poelenburg and Peldersveld, it was not about the holidays. It was about the energy bill. Director Petra Glandorff: “The mothers said they were very shocked by the new amount that the energy company is asking.”
The energy bill is rising. According to Peter Mulder, researcher at TNO, the number of households suffering from ‘energy poverty’ will increase in the coming months – there are now 630,000. The definition of energy poverty: 13 to 20 percent of net income is spent on energy bills. Usually, these people live in poorly insulated houses built in the 1950s and 1960s, which means that they have relatively high gas and electricity costs. At the same time, they have a low income.
That certainly applies to Poelenburg and Peldersveld in Zaanstad. There are many flats from the sixties here, the average family income is 1,500 euros gross per month (Poelenburg) and 1,750 euros gross per month (Peldersveld).
In the future plans Pact Poelenburg, Peldersveld of the municipality of Zaanstad, the housing associations, education and the GGD states: “Families that are doing well leave, and vulnerable tenants come to live there.” The aim is for the district to be at the average socio-economic level of Zaanstad by 2040 through investments.
Tommy Tomato
Primary school Kleurpracht is doing everything it can to alleviate poverty in pupils’ homes. Since June, the 170 students receive a free hot meal at school every Friday from Tommy Tomato. This foundation normally arranges healthy hot meals for school, for a fee. In Poelenburg it now happens once a week for free.
The crazy thing is, says ‘bridge official’ Isil Gokce, that the children have become slightly heavier after the lockdowns and now after the summer holidays. Not all, but many do. Because sports for children costs money. Transport. Membership. stuff. And unhealthy food – with sugar and fat, white bread – is cheaper than healthy food.
Gokce is the only one from the school to visit parents’ homes. “Not to control them, but to help,” she says emphatically. Gokce speaks Dutch and Turkish and can thus talk to all Dutch-speaking parents and Turkish and Bulgarian parents at the school. Many Bulgarians speak Turkish fluently.
Recently she came to people whose hob was broken. They couldn’t replace him, so Gokce arranged it. Some children don’t have a bed to sleep in; she takes care of that too. Twice recently she has done errands for families where there was nothing left in the house.
She is again receiving help from the Youth Education Fund, a foundation that assists schools in poor neighbourhoods. 445 primary schools are affiliated with this, says coordinator Arie Schilling. Each year they can each request 10,000 euros for everything they deem necessary. “We are not bureaucratic and assume that the teacher knows what the children need. They can request reimbursement online for all kinds of things – from a bed and food to an OV chip card. That can be for an individual child, a family, or a group.” In the Netherlands, 1,800 primary schools (out of approximately 7,000) belong to the fund’s ‘target group’. These are schools where at least half of the students grow up in poverty.
This includes primary school Johannes Postschool in Sneek. For several weeks, forty pupils at this school have been given a breakfast package from the Red Cross. The Red Cross has been doing this throughout Friesland since February, this school has now also registered. Director Djoke de Schiffart: “The packages are popular. It contains bread, spreads, hummus, eggs, yogurt and fruit.” She also uses the pack to communicate with parents. “We also put leaflets in it about dealing with energy or healthy food.”
Where will this neighborhood go if the energy bill continues to rise? Djoke de Schiffart sighs. “More and more people will get into serious trouble.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of September 9, 2022