Your leader (10 November) is right: nobody should need to rely on food banks to stave off hunger and destitution. Where specific drivers of need have been identified, Feeding Britain and others have secured reforms – such as the holiday activities and food programme, streamlined processes for tax credits and child benefit, and stronger protection for people on prepayment meters – to counter them.
If further such reforms are to be gained, thereby addressing the underlying causes of hunger, they must be guided by robust and granular data. The Trussell Trust could lead this exercise by investing in systems that break down its broad referral criteria of “benefit changes”, “benefit delays” and “low income”. The government could play its part, too, by publishing its internal review of the drivers of food bank demand.
These two moves would begin to answer questions about the extent to which demand is directly linked to particular benefits being changed or delayed, and how and why this is happening, as well as about whether it is low income resulting from hourly wages, hours worked, a loss of work, benefit rates, or a combination of all four, that leaves people unable to afford food. Regular answers to these questions, backed up by data, will give our country the compass it needs to eliminate the structural drivers of hunger.
Rosie Boycott Chair, Frank Field Trustee, and Andrew Forsey Director, Feeding Britain
• I was in tears after reading the article about the food bank in Huddersfield (Half-term, hardship and heartbreak: one month in the life of a food-bank manager, 10 November). The stoicism and dedication of the staff, paid and unpaid, in particular the manager, were so admirable. The examples of what brings people to the food bank show the precariousness of life for thousands if not millions of people, and the humane way they are treated is nothing short of marvellous, as is the generosity of people who regularly donate food out of kindness.
I also noticed that their work started with the coalition government and its policies, where basically the people with the least paid for the mistakes of the people with the most. The vote on the school holiday meals appeal and some of the comments by MPs and ministers were shameful, and this was highlighted by the behaviour of Marcus Rashford and the people at the food bank.
All Tory MPs should be made to read that article and hang their heads in shame. There is so much about life in England that brings me low, but those people in that food bank made me feel proud.
Elizabeth Roberts
Doncaster, South Yorkshire
• Let us not get carried away by the figure of £170m to help children living in low-income families in the UK over the next four months (Marcus Rashford forces Boris Johnson into second U-turn on child food poverty, 8 November). There are 4 million children living in poverty, so the amount per child will be £42.50 in total and just £10.62 per month, which is only £2.65 per week. It is better than nothing, but compared with what is being spent to shore up businesses, it really is a pittance.
John Gaskin
Bainton, East Riding of Yorkshire
• Now that Boris Johnson has changed his mind as regards feeding children during school holidays, could he please reverse his decision and allow sport for children outside school? Their physical and mental health is just as important as filling their stomachs. And this U-turn would not cost a penny.
Ariella Lister
London
