YOUR letter writer P Witlea of Bishopthorpe (May 2) cannot be more removed from facts when she/he espouses views about which she/he shows no knowledge.

For his or her information, people cannot just turn up at a food bank “with a barrow” and walk away with it filled or semi-filled.

People attending food banks are in need of nourishment, not only for themselves but also for their children who are caught up in the draconian cuts to the welfare state.

Many feel ashamed to attend food banks but are driven to them by virtue of the necessity to feed their children.

Around 25 per cent of people who use food banks have had their benefit payments delayed (a typical ploy of the Department of Work and Pensions) and sometimes even stopped (or sanctioned to use the buzz word).

Over a million people are now sanctioned. About another 25 per cent are having to use food banks because of low income and high rented housing costs.

Then we have zero-hours contracts, (latest estimate at over 1.5 million) whereby a worker cannot plan a budget as they do not know how many hours their supposedly “benevolent employer” will permit them to work, that just compounds the situation.

Nobody can just walk up to a food bank “with a barrow”. They undergo a thorough means test, carried out nowadays, in the majority of cases by local councils because the Coalition government have wiped their hands of the welfare state and an individual is only allowed three days’ emergency, basic, food supplies.

Howard Perry, St James Place, Dringhouses, York.