Weighing in on this "poor people should just eat better" thing: there was a period of my life where I was broke. I was working nights at a supermarket for £8.55/hour on a 20h/week contract. I took every overtime shift offered, and voluntarily trained in 3 different departments to

increase my chances of getting overtime. I worked 16 nights without a break. At times I worked 18 hour shifts, stacking shelves. I signed away my right to a 48-hour work week and worked upwards of 60, often over 70 hours/week, for standard pay (no overtime rate).

I was so deep into my overdraft that I barely hit zero when I was paid. And then the rent and bills came out. I was on emergency tax despite having earned nothing for months, but had no energy to fight it. I lived in a constant state of panic that I would max out my overdraft.

I ate porridge 2 meals per day for a fortnight at one point, made using milk provided by work. 75p for 1kg of oats. I did my best to laugh when a colleague joked that I must really love porridge. I switched to couscous with value stock cubes for a bit, but that's more expensive.

Sometimes I would start my shifts with a couple of pitta breads thrown into the toaster and eaten plain. 25p for 6 pittas, which could last me 3 shifts. Sometimes I'd steal 'yellow sticker' foods from the end-of-day bins as we weren't allowed to take them, but I was hungry.

There was often a box of damaged fruit in the staff room, the only fresh food I saw for a few months. One time there was a whole mango. I burst into tears as I picked it up.
I would eat yogurts from split pots that arrived from the warehouse, hoping they wouldn't make me sick.

The bakery staff would leave us unsold 'waste' filled doughnuts in the staff room. I ate 5 in a row on one break for a bet. My colleague didn't know that it was the first thing I'd eaten for 16 hours, or that I had done it completely unprompted and unnoticed on other shifts.

I was lucky. I was in a situation where I could access cheap carbs to keep me moving, and take or steal additional foods. Later on, I could stretch to making a pasta salad with pesto & olives for a friend's birthday barbecue. I could buy a cup of tea in a cafe. I could eat more.

I had friends who let me stay with them for a couple of months when my rental contract ended and I didn't have the money to put a deposit down anywhere else.
And there was a light at the end of the tunnel, a date when it would be over. When the big bills would all be paid off.

I was also young. My older colleagues all warned me that I couldn't work that way forever. I knew they were right. I was not healthy. The injuries and nutritional deficiencies I suffered over that time affected me until last year. The mental impacts are still apparent.

I haven't eaten a jam doughnut since I left that job.

I can't bring myself to eat plain porridge.

I stockpile food.

I eat things that my flatmate would rather throw in the bin, cutting off the bad parts and making the most of what's left.

I didn't cook myself a meal for 6 months+

Once I had more money than in the porridge weeks, I lived on stale baked goods and own-brand litre bottles of energy drink and the occasional value-range ready meal (67-75p each). I still stole food from the bins.

If at any point you'd told me how cheap a bag of apples was, I would have wanted to punch you.

If you'd suggested that only eating jam doughnuts/oats/pitta bread wasn't doing me any good, well no sh*t Sherlock! Do you think I never considered the impact of my diet on my health?!

If you'd looked at my 67p ready meal and said "why don't you just cook at home?" when I was living in a house where I had to move the furniture to protect myself when I slept because someone I lived with had kicked through my bedroom door, I would have screamed.

The whole thing is just so f*cking patronising. People eat what they eat for so many reasons. It's not because they're too stupid to know what's good for them, or how to cook, or how to budget.
Knowing about the Eatwell plate didn't mean I could afford a balanced diet.

And these attitudes cause more harm than good. If I ever treated myself to something like a bag of crisps, or a chocolate bar, or (god forbid!) a meal deal, I'd beat myself up afterwards for 'wasting' money that I could have used to buy something healthier. Screw that.

Poor people have often got more pressing issues than worrying about whether they got their five-a-day or how much sugar is in their food. And people relying on food bank parcels a) don't have control over what's in them, and b) may not even have money for the electricity to cook.

And even if someone *does* have the funds to buy healthier food, and to pay for the electricity to cook it, you do not know what they are going through or what is going on in their lives, so I would recommend you just Back The Hell Off and Mind Your Own Damn Business.

I am incredibly lucky that I was only broke for a relatively short time. I am eternally grateful that I had a way out. But those experiences and that trauma is still with me, and still affects my day-to-day life. And a big part of that is internalised judgement over my spending.

Stop telling poor people to eat better.

Stop judging people for the food they buy.

Stop voting Tory.

Ask your local food bank for a shopping list. Set up a recurring donation to the Trussell Trust or a food bank in your area. Support other causes that help people in poverty.

https://www.trusselltrust.org/make-a-donation/

https://cpag.org.uk/how-you-can-help/donate

https://www.shelter.org.uk/ 

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Support-Us/Ways-to-Donate