Too many families are going hungry in Britain | Letters

Frank Field MP describes the increasing poverty he has witnessed in Birkenhead. Plus Deborah Hume recalls being involved in a project to provide free school meals to children on weekdays in the summer holidays around 1970

The government’s welfare cuts are forecast to trigger an increase in inequality – a concerning development in and of itself. But a much more serious consequence of those cuts is the accompanying rise of destitution (Welfare cuts ‘risk causing sustained rise in inequality’, 22 February).

Feeding Birkenhead is working tirelessly to prevent poorer families and individuals falling into the clutches of destitution. Yet the frontline projects and volunteers who undertake this work report that a growing number of vulnerable people are dropping out of the system altogether. Single people living alone – including an army veteran who recently had to survive in the bushes, and a vulnerable man who was sanctioned for missing a benefit appointment because he was in A&E – are particularly at risk of succumbing to this social evil.

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from Children | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2FJYBIc