62 per cent of teachers have heard children talking about skipping meals. Pic: Unsplash Schools are becoming the UK’s “fourth emergency service” – providing food, warmth and crisis support to children as poverty deepens. A study of more than 100 teachers across the UK – shared exclusively with The Lead – found educators are providing warm spaces, food, clothing, hygiene items, emotional support and crisis navigation, with limited resources and often using their own time and money.