Is it offensive to suggest we all should know how to cook a family meal?

I SUPPORT Conservative MP Lee Anderson’s call for everyone to learn how to cook. It doesn’t take great skills to cook simple dishes such as stew, cottage pie or sausage and mash. I loved cookery lessons at school, which taught me how to make use of leftovers.

G. HAYWOOD, Long Eaton, Notts.

MY WIFE and I were brought up in the 1940s and 1950s when families had little money, but cooked fresh food every day. There were no ready meals or microwaves. Most main meals consisted of a small amount of meat and cheap, filling ingredients such as potatoes or bread. But even simple meals, such as soup made from vegetables and a stock cube, costs more than the 30p a day quoted by MP Lee Anderson when claiming food banks are not necessary. Cooking fresh food can be more economical and nutritious than pre-prepared supermarket meals, but it still costs money. That people are asking charities for food they can eat cold because they can’t afford to cook indicates a failure of our society. The need for food banks in our

rich country is disgraceful, but the answer is not to blame people for their inability to cook. We need to create a society where every family can afford to feed and clothe themselves.

JOHN MARTIN, Swarthmoor, Cumbria.

A FRIEND refuses to cook from scratch and lives on convenience meals and takeaways. It’s her lifestyle choice.

Mrs A. SMITH, Croydon, Surrey.

IS LEE ANDERSON writing a cookbook for the poor with his selection of 30p recipes? Obviously it will be a freebie handed out at your local Jobcentre with a can opener, Primus stove, traps for free-range rabbits and a hedgerowforaging guide.

S. T. VAUGHAN, Birmingham.

OUR grandmothers cooked food that could be rehashed. Roast on Sunday, cold on Monday and rissoles or meat pie on Tuesday.

FAY GOODWIN, Lutterworth, Leics.

LEE ANDERSON’S version of a food bank would give people advice on budgeting and cooking lessons — what’s not to like? Forget TV celebrity chefs and fancy dishes. Everyday cooks and accountants could give lessons to make food banks a thing of the past.

BRENDA MICHAEL, Crawley, W. Sussex.

I’D LIKE to see Mr Anderson feed a family on low-income wages. I wonder how soon he’d be visiting a food bank.

LIN BRINER, Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

TV CHANNELS are bursting with cookery programmes, but they are all aimed at the well-heeled. Why can’t we have some down-to-earth shows for people with little money, showing easy and cheap recipes, such as shepherd’s pie, macaroni cheese, rice, pasta and vegetable dishes? Delia Smith was derided for showing us how to boil an egg, but that’s the sort of cookery programme we need.

PAT MARON, Melton Mowbray, Leics.

I’M SURPRISED that Lee Anderson suggests people use food banks because they are unable to cook. Does he think they are handing out M&S ready meals?

JILL HOROBIN, Allestree, Derbys.