Malnourished pupils with grey skin are "filling their pockets" with food from school canteens in poor areas due to poverty, head teachers say.
The heads, from various parts of England and Wales, described how some of their poorest pupils looked thinner, had poor teeth and a grey pallor.
One head said: "My children have grey skin, poor teeth, poor hair, they are thinner."
The government said measures were in place to tackle poverty.
Lynn, a head teacher from a former industrial town in Cumbria, did not want to give her full name for fear of shaming families in her school community.
She was one of a number of head teachers speaking to reporters at the National Education Union conference in Brighton.
They were highlighting the issues faced by an increasing number of children growing up in poverty, and how their experiences affect their education.
'Grubby clothes'
Lynn said that hunger was particularly apparent after the weekend.
She said: "Children are filling their pockets with food. In some establishments that would be called stealing. We call it survival."
Another head teacher from Nottinghamshire, Louise Regan, said: "When you take children out to an event, maybe a sporting event, you see children of the same age from schools in an affluent area.
"It's the grey skin, the pallor. It's the pallor you really notice."
She went on: "Monday morning is the worst.
"There are a number of families that we target that we know are going to be coming into school hungry.
"By the time it's 9.30am they are tired."
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