JENNI Ruegg, like many other working mums, spends her time juggling her work and home commitments.

Like many other working mums, she’s also tightened the purse strings lately as the economic downturn takes its toll.

But for Jenni who lives with her husband Danny, 37, and six of their seven children, aged two to 19, in Bournemouth, things eventually got so hard that she simply could not afford to put food on the table.

“I didn’t send the kids to school one day because I had nothing to put in their lunchboxes,” she said.

“We were all hungry. There was nothing in the fridge or freezer. The children go to Winton Primary School, which has a really good parent support worker who I’ve known a really long time.

“She said to me why were the kids not at school. I was going to say I was ill or they were ill, but I said I didn’t have any food to put in their lunchboxes.”

Jenni, 37, was offered a voucher for Bournemouth Foodbank and, although reluctant to accept it at first, she eventually went along to the foodbank in Charminster for an emergency food parcel.

She’s not been back since, but Jenni, who works nights as a cleaner, along with Danny, and as a dinner lady at the children’s school, is keen to speak out to alert other struggling families to help available to them.

“If it hadn’t been for the foodbank I don’t know what would have happened. Over the last 18 months or so contracts have finished where people are tightening up, the cleaners are the first to go.

“But money doesn’t stop being spent. It’s just bills, bills, bills and the cost of food, the cost of living. We just found we had more out-goings than in-comings.

“I would give my kids dinner and half of me would think ‘don’t’ eat it all, because I’m starving’. There were times when my two-year-old, Tana, would say to me ‘I’m hungry, my tummy hurts’, but I had no food. I just felt like such a failure.”

With a large family, Jenni would often fill two shopping trolleys every ten days, but when things were really bad she was wrapping the children’s sandwiches in tissues and washing her hair with washing-up liquid.

“It’s the average family that are struggling,” said Jenni, who has never defaulted on her mortgage payments and prides herself on paying all her bills.

“Some months it’s good, but when you’ve got to put tyres on your car, the MoT’s due or something... I can’t live without a car, I’ve tried, but I go to cleaning jobs at night and it’s for my safety really.

“So all our bills are paid for last month. But this is a new month, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t have loads of debt, but what bills don’t you pay?

“I’ve not been able to pay the credit card bill sometimes, but I always catch up when I’ve got a bit extra.”

Jenni, who also runs a non-profit making gym in Charminster with Danny, has spoken about the help she received from the foodbank before, and said the most shocking thing was people’s reaction to her situation.

“I live in my means,” she said.

“I’ve got a seven-seater Mercedes, but I bought it nine years ago and I’ve paid for it. When you’ve got nothing people expect you to drive round in a beaten-up old car.

“The hardest thing I’ve found is people judging you because of things you’ve got already.”

Jenni is highlighting her experience in a bid to encourage more people to ask for help if they need to. Foodbank vouchers are available from schools, doctors, dentists, social workers, health visitors and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

• To find out more about Bournemouth Foodbank call 01202 900979.