Clearly something has gone badly wrong, somehow.

I am not sure how valid this comment will be (hopefully others will give more informed opinions, for or against) but picking up on just one of the many cues in the article, the reference to chicken supernoodles, I see, looking just now, that a 100gram pack of supernoodles retails for ≥ 80p but a five hundred gram of own brand spaghetti for 50p.

Now I don't know what horrors are added to supernoodles to make the "chicken" flavour but I'll bet a 1000 forints that pasta could be "flavoured" with an off the shelf product pretty cheaply & effectively.

Relevant? Not sure.

Supernoodles are nutritional horror in themselves ! However, they're easier to "cook" as they only require hot water from a kettle, rather than boiling on a stove. It's certainly shameful if any child in Britain is going hungry through poverty, but more often than not the problem is poverty compounded with social and/or mental issues, all of which are better addressed by the state than food banks.

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Yes, I appreciate this is a complex problem with multiple causes - & not one easy solution.

The quotes from Duncan Smith & Rees Mogg remind me that in their brave new world from April 2019, all will be solved.

They are both so astoundingly detached from reality.

Delusional f-wits who still believe in The Empire. The Wrath of the Almighty will fix them !

Moggs is quite the believer in the Almighty too, particularly the Catholic version (against abortion and homosexuality). The people of North Somerset must be in a complete social time warp to elect JRM as their representative.

Sainsbury's launches scheme labelling items useful to food banks
It's a nice idea and all but what an indictment on the way things have gone.

Yes, that's a point. I suppose it's a bit like the American system where charity plays a greater role in providing a social safety net than the state. Regressive.

I guess in America, though, it was never different. Canada too, of course.

My wife used to marvel at the things I told her about the UK system.

Food bank broken into

Rough sleepers to be offered stab-proof coats

The way things are going, I think everyone should be issued with one.

Children in low-income families suffer 'shame and social exclusion'

Things are a bit different to my day. On Monday we bought our dinner tickets for the week and handed one over on each lunchtime when we ate. Those on free school meals also got the same tickets so they were not identified.

There was no choice of food other than not eat something but there was no junk.
What's on the menu, then, that the price difference is enough that some items are not covered for those on free school meals? Or is it the quantity?

And what is this "money on the card" that someone spoke of, something with a magnetic strip? Does it work the same way as dinner tickets used to?

Shard?