Food bank demand an indictment of our society - The Yorkshire Post says

The figure is more than double the amount distributed by food banks in the same period five years ago, the charity said, while the number provided for children topped a million for the first time.

In Yorkshire and the Humber, 200,562 parcels were provided to people, with 75,142 for children.

It is the kind of story that highlights the worst aspects of the country’s political standing but, in one sense, the best of its people.

Gratitude should go to all of those people who put parcels together, and who donate goods and their time to help people in need - it is the sort of generosity that is often unheralded but should not be taken for granted.

Ultimately, however, this shocking level of demand for food should not be happening in 2023.

Food banks were set up to help people in an emergency and are “not a lasting solution to hunger and poverty,” Emma Revie, Chief Executive at the Trussell Trust, has reminded us.

Rising numbers of people simply cannot afford the essentials in life, which is a terrible indictment of our economic situation and, in a broader sense, our national priorities.