I WOULD like to reply to the letter from Mr B Kirke about foodbanks (Barry & District New, February 20).

I understand his point about the war years and what his mother went through, times must have been very hard, but there was a war on. There is no war on now, this is the year 2014.

It is a national disgrace that it has been estimated that over 500,000 will have used these foodbanks by the end of the year. Most of these people including pensioners rely on these foodbanks due to in many cases a life changing experience in their lives, loss of employment, reduced hours employment, cuts in benefit and bedroom tax. Even people who are working have been reduced to relying on foodbanks. Only last Christmas the local church in my area was making a plea for donations of food and toys to give out to the needy who would otherwise have nothing for Christmas. My wife and I went out shopping and bought some food and toys and I took them to the church. I will never forget the sight that greeted me when I opened the door to the church it was filled with food parcels,hampers and toys and when I asked the volunteer where all this stuff was going she told me it was going to families who could not afford food or toys for their children at Christmas.

The UK plc is supposed to be one of the richest countries in the world yet tens of thousands of people cannot afford the basics. Perhaps Mr Kirke would like to get off his soapbox and go to one of these foodbanks during distribution days, I am sure they would love to hear about the war years and what they didn't have in them days compared to now. I wonder what the reaction from the people who cannot afford to feed their children would be. Enough said.

D J Radford

Coleridge Crescent

Barry