Readers respond to Simon Jenkins’ suggestion that churches need to learn from cathedrals and become cultural and therapeutic hubs, and point out the importance of social actionSimon Jenkins writes about booming cathedrals and failing parish churches (To survive, our churches need to learn […]

Plan to drop dedicated fund while defence spending rises dismissed as false economyThe European commission has been accused of seeking to cut EU funding for the continent’s poorest people by 50% to secure post-Brexit cost savings and extra funds for defence projects.Jacques Vandenschrik, the […]

Canary Wharf’s corporate towers look down on food banks in ‘borough of contrasts’ Jane and Noel have never met. They probably never will, even though they go about their lives within sight of each other.Jane is a 30-year-old mother of five. On the Thursday before Christmas, Jane […]

Singer says second consecutive Christmas No 1 charity single, released because ‘the country needs a laugh’, will benefit ‘everyday people’ forced to use food banksLadBaby takes Christmas No 1 with I Love Sausage RollsLadBaby’s I Love Sausage Rolls, a spoof of Joan […]

Novelty duo become only the third artist ever to score back-to-back Christmas No 1 singles, after the Beatles and Spice Girls‘I Love Sausage Rolls is for people who can’t eat’: LadBaby’s Mark HoyleLadBaby have scored their second Christmas No 1 in a row with I Love Sausage […]

New work requirements are set to throw 700,000 people off Snap benefits, with African Americans to be particularly hard hitAs Kyle Waide visited the Atlanta community food bank recently, where he is CEO, he ran into a woman who had recently lost her administrative job at a university. She was […]

Former food bank volunteer Janice Gupta Gwilliam responds to Guardian readers urging her to reconsider her decision to quitI am grateful to Trish Cockayne and Jeff Skinner (Letters, 16 December) for their kind words following my letter (14 December). I believe them when they refer to the actions […]

Trish Cockayne and Jeff Skinner on the vital support provided by food banks and those who work with themI am really sorry that Janice Gupta Gwilliam has resigned from her local Trussell Trust food bank (Letters, 14 December). I have been a volunteer in the north-west for around three years and, […]

Food banks | Feast of Saint Lucy | Dick Tuck | Labour manifesto | Momentum | Lies | David CameronI’ve just resigned as a volunteer with my local food bank. Until the Trussell Trust makes it clear to users, donors and volunteers that it is the previous and future Conservative governments that […]

We’d like to hear your suggestions about how to inspire hope, stay positive and show solidarity with those likely to feel especially vulnerable todayMany people will be feeling worried and alone this morning, concerned about what a Tory majority will mean for austerity; for the future of the […]

Amanda Platts on saving the NHS from the Conservative party, another reader on food banks, John Rushby on Neil Kinnock’s warning and Chris Scarlett on keeping candles of hope burningThis is a heartfelt appeal to everyone in the UK who cares about the NHS, written by a GP of 36 years’ […]

Voters desensitised by creeping poverty and broken services must be told they deserve more – and that the UK can afford itA decade of austerity has shrunk the British state to such a degree that it is no longer able to fulfil its basic functions. Just ask the cancer patient waiting for […]

Natalie Bloomer visited the Weston Favell scheme in Northampton every month for a year. Here is her diaryMy first session comes at a busy time of the year as staff gear up for Christmas. Each person who comes through the door is offered a hot drink and some toast while they tell volunteers their […]

Mr Johnson once thought ‘destitution on a Victorian scale’ might be a good thing. With Tory policies he may yet deliver such a dystopiaDid Boris Johnson watch Channel 4’s documentary Growing Up Poor? He should have. The film is a seminal moment in television which has made people […]

Food bank use | Peerages | Nigel Farage | Climate crisis | Attender/attendee | EyewitnessRe the letters from Kay Murphy (27 November) and Estelle Smart (29 November), the Hexham Courant reported on a hustings event last week. When asked about the use of the local food bank, the Conservative […]

Food banks | Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral | Attendant Liam Fox | Avanti trains | Buddhist saying | Electoral neutralityFurther to Kay Murphy’s letter (27 November), when told that the number of people using food banks in the Malvern Hills area had risen by 50%, Conservative […]

We’ve lobbied our local MP several times, and contacted the responsible secretary of state. All we get back is a total lack of responsibility, writes Kay MurphyIf Val Harrison and other readers write to their MP and ministers about food banks as she suggests (Letters, 22 November), I hope […]

Thinktank Resolution Foundation predicts social crisis will worsen if Boris Johnson wins general electionChild poverty is at risk of rising to a record 60-year high under a Conservative government because its manifesto retains the coalition’s benefit cuts, according to the Resolution […]

Deductions to cover loans are forcing many to turn to food banksMore than a million households on universal credit – 60% of everyone receiving the payments –are having their benefits cut to repay debts and loans.Data sourced under the Freedom of Information Act show that in May – […]

The scale and efficiency of the operation is impressive but also depressing – we shouldn’t need them in the first placeIn the course of making a radio programme I found myself in a food bank – a Trussell Trust place in Hastings operated by King’s Church. It was as inspiring […]