When we lived in Scotland, my kids’ school was close to an area of ‘social deprivation’, as we so euphemistically term poverty these days.

One day, my then 12yr old daughter was walking home from school with a friend and mentioned she was hungry and looking forward to having a snack when she got home.

‘You are so lucky that you have extra food for snacks’, the 12 yr old friend said. ‘Our bread slices are counted out so we have enough for lunch every day this week’.

This was a girl who slept on a thin mattress on the floor because they couldn’t afford a bed.

My daughter told me this much later - but she used to buy a tuna sandwich for lunch and then pretend she wasn’t hungry and give it to her friend.

When I heard about this, I made an appointment with the school guidance teacher. I asked if they could provide any support. He said he’d make sure the girl was invited to breakfast club.

He assured me that she’d at least get a couple of slices of toast for breakfast and, of course, her free school lunch. And that there were many children in his school whose families relied of this assistance.

Even if you believe that feckless parents are to blame for stories like this girls, how can you justify harming the kids? What kind of person denies food to children in need?

Forget about politics for a second. Just go into your kitchen and open the fridge. Imagine being a 12yr old who opens the fridge to find a couple of slices of cheese and a pint of milk.

Imagine having to ration slices of bread. BREAD. That costs, what 40p?

I don’t have a conclusion to this thread other than it hurts my heart to think of children going hungry. And to ask you all, if you can, to donate to a food bank.

Also because I just watched this trailer - what are the long-term affects, both physical and psychological to growing up like this? https://twitter.com/c4dispatches/status/1200927491134820353