Kids living below the breadline say they have watched their parents skip meals as families struggle in the the coronavirus pandemic.
Parents told a charity they pretended they weren't hungry when they couldn't put enough food on the table during lockdown.
One youngster told the Food Foundation "mum is receiving those school meal vouchers because she tends not to eat so she has enough for me.”
Another kid confided they were worried about their mum's job, telling interviewers "she only eats a little”.
Parents admitted fibbing they had already eaten to try to ease their kids' worries when they skipped meals, the charity's executive director Anna Taylor told the Mirror.
The Food Foundation interviewed parents and kids aged between eight to 17 during the Christmas period.
It comes as fresh government figures show one in five kids in low income households had already experienced going hungry just before the pandemic hit.
The UK's 20 worst areas for child poverty - see the full list here
The figures released yesterday revealed three quarters of Britain's kids in poverty are now in working families.
They also show 1.7million kids have experienced "food insecurity".
The data only goes up to last March when the UK coronavirus lockdown began before a tragic year of deaths, job losses, and ongoing illness.
The Food Foundation estimates the food insecurity number is now far higher, putting it at closer to 2.5million children in a report covering the six months to January 2021.
Ms Taylor told the Mirror nearly one in five of the kids the charity spoke to had experienced "food insecurity".
That meant that they had experienced skipping meals, had smaller portions, or missed out on nutritional options due to lack of money or food.
The official term also describes people who struggle to access food in 'socially acceptable' ways - for instance families who are only saved from hunger by the generosity of food banks.
"What this looks like in reality for these families and their kids is not having enough food at home or not having enough nutritious food to meet their needs -like pasta or rice with nothing on it," Ms Taylor said.
"Children talk about seeing their parents not eating or having to make themselves less food because there wasn't enough."
Malnourishment affected children's learning - which could set them back as they return to school in the latest lockdown easing, Ms Taylor added.
"If they are hungry they are often badly behaved which means they be disruptive in school."
The Food Foundation's report found children also spoke of hiding money struggles in the times before lockdown.
Some said they were "too busy" to attend pals' birthday parties being held at cafes rather than admit they couldn't afford to go, Ms Taylor said.
"They don't want to sat they don't have the money as there is still a lot of stigma round it."
Single and disabled parents and households on Universal Credit (UC) tended to struggle the most during the pandemic, according to the charity's data.
People struggled despite the furlough and self-employment help schemes and UC uplift, poverty campaigners warned this week.
The Food Foundation was calling for more families to become eligible for free school meals, which Ms Taylor said only targeted the absolute poorest households despite many more families struggling on low incomes.
The charity also urged the government to address benefits caps for larger families by scrapping the UC two-child limit.
In one of the past year's biggest sagas, the Tories were forced into a u-turn over feeding kids free school meals during holiday breaks under pressure led by footballer and child poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford.
The government was then slammed over free school meal contracting after fuming parents posted pictures on social media of poor quality parcels.
Ms Taylor said Rashford's "confident and honest" approach to opening up about his childhood struggles was inspiring more families to speak up.
She believed Brits were growing more empathetic about poverty as previously comfortable earners lost jobs and accessed benefits for the first time during the pandemic.
Those who volunteered with neighbours and at food banks over the past year also got an eye-opening look at how others lived, she added.
The latest Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures showing child poverty hit record levels last year are yet to lay bare the full impact of the coronavirus crisis on livelihoods.
The data showed the number of children in low income families rising from 4.1 million to 4.3 million year on year.
A total 92% of people in the UK were described as food secure.
But those proportions dropped for children and people on Universal Credit.
The statistics showed one in five of all kids living in households below the 'relative' poverty line had experienced food insecurity in the year to March 2020.
The government defines the 'relative low income' line as households who bring in less than 60% of the median income.
Its 'absolute' poverty measure covers households earning 60% less than the 2011 median income.
The latest child poverty figures showed England's North and Midlands recorded the highest rates, while London had the highest total number of kids living in low income households.
As many as one third of all kids in Middlesbrough lived below the poverty line, followed by Oldham in Greater Manchester and Bradford in West Yorkshire.
By contrast, all of the areas with the lowest poverty levels were England's South, largely around the Home Counties and wealthier London boroughs.
Child poverty charities warned the figures put Boris Johnson's 'leveling up' 2019 election agenda in question.
In response to yesterday's figures, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said families went into the pandemic with the highest household income growth levels in twenty years.
Struggling households were targeted with 'unprecedented' welfare rescue packages such as the Universal Credit uplift, unfreezing benefits caps, and the furlough scheme, she added.
But Middlesbrough's Labour MP Andy McDonald described the town's child poverty rates as the product of years of "shameful" neglect by the Tories.
He said families struggled as low wages and insecure employment failed to keep pace with increasing living costs.
The Mirror has approached the DWP for comment.
