London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 10, 2025

University staff who can’t afford to eat ask for campus food banks

University staff who can’t afford to eat ask for campus food banks

Young academics and support workers are on the breadline as the cost of living crisis bites

Staff are asking universities to set up food banks because they are struggling with rising bills and say they cannot afford to eat properly.

As food and energy prices rise, the University and College Union says young academics teaching on casual contracts and low-paid support workers such as porters and cleaners are finding themselves on the breadline.

Some staff members at Leeds, a member of the Russell Group of leading universities, said they couldn’t afford adequate meals and called for a staff food bank on an anonymous message board last month. The online message board, seen by the Observer, was set up by students who occupied university buildings to protest at low staff pay.

One staff member wrote: “Another morning where I wake up hungry because I couldn’t eat enough last night.” They added that they had survived on two or three meals of plain rice a day during the pandemic.

A second anonymous university worker said: “This Tuesday I attended my appointment to collect a waste food hamper from a charity. I do this every fortnight so I can make ends meet. No savings in any month.”

One young academic said: “This winter my flat was so cold that I bought myself a pair of gloves to wear while working. Turning the heating on was too expensive.”

Jo Grady, general secretary of the UCU, said: “It is inexcusable that low wages from university and college bosses have forced education staff into using food banks and it is an indictment of the entire sector that has held down pay for far too long.”

UCU members at 20 universities have been boycotting marking and assessment in protest at pension cuts, pay and working conditions, although in recent days Leeds has settled its dispute.

Ruth Holliday, professor of gender and culture at the university said: “It makes me feel angry and slightly ashamed to hear there are people working in my university who can’t afford food. It’s just desperately unfair. Universities need to pay people enough to live.”

She added that most first year undergraduate seminars are now taught by PhD students, who are typically juggling multiple hourly paid teaching contracts to make ends meet while writing their thesis.

Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, at a student protest in London last August.


“These young academics will be given an hourly rate for their teaching, but what they are paid won’t cover the many hours they have to put in to prepare for each seminar,” she said. “If you work it out based on the work they actually do, that hourly rate becomes practically nothing.”

A PhD student currently doing casual teaching jobs at Birmingham University, who did not want to be named in case it harmed her job prospects, said: “Food and electricity bills are a big worry. I have very quick showers and at the weekend I come in and work on campus because I’m scared to use too much electricity.”

She added: “My students have no idea I don’t get enough money for teaching them. It’s a battle to make my rent. I’d love to be in a position where I’m not just surviving all the time. It’s incredibly stressful.”

Dr Marian Mayer, UCU’s national representative for disabled members, said the experience of members at Leeds was “emblematic of a much wider problem”.

She said: “I have had conversations with members who are at their wits end. Some have reported to their shame that they have used food banks. Others know they cannot afford the cost of living rises.”

The UCU says members at further education colleges are also struggling to pay for food and bills.

The head of HR at Abingdon and Witney College in Oxfordshire emailed staff in March explaining that the college could not make any immediate improvement to staff pay to help with the rising cost of living, but staff could “take any items you need” from campus food banks. The email said the college would move donated food items to “a more confidential space”, and female staff could ask at reception if they needed free sanitary products.

Jo Milsom, vice principal for social engagement at Abingdon and Witney College, said: “The unprecedented nature of current affairs has meant that many of our staff are struggling financially and as a responsible employer we are doing everything we can to assist.

She added: “No one should have to access food banks to survive, but we feel it is responsible to support our colleagues to do this in a discreet way if they need to.” She said many staff members had thanked them for this.

A spokesperson for Leeds University said: “We recognise these are difficult times for many of our staff and students, as they are for much of society, and we are taking action.”

He added that as well as moving more staff on to permanent contracts “we will next month make extra payments of £650 to all staff on lower pay grades, and will consider whether further one-off payments should be made later in the year”.

He said the university was also increasing the level of its staff assistance fund for those in financial difficulty.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
×