Actually if you were to buy a bag of dried lentils it would cost you a couple of quid. Some people don't have that to spend in the first place. And not everyone wants to eat lentils.

Food is a weapon in austerity Britain. Hunger, the threat of and the reality of, is used to coerce and control.

We have an odd culinary relationship with tinned food. In higher society, rare and supposedly exquisite goods such as tinned baby octopus, foie gras and caviar come in beautifully crafted, artistically designed tins.

Food is such a basic need, a fundamental right, and such a simple pleasure.

Food poverty comes in two strands. The first is not having enough money to buy food for yourself and your family. The second is poverty of education.

Not all Tories are atrocious heartless fiends, I concede. But those who wield hunger as a weapon while claiming their own meals on expenses, are beyond satire.

I wear Doc Martens leather boots, so I'm not a vegan. I am a vague-one.

I was a young mother with a dependent. I went from nice flat and fire service job to cold and hungry with a child. I lived rough for two years, with six months relying on the food bank.

Even in my genre, cookery, just look who gets on the television. Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigel Slater. All very nice men. All white middleflclass men.