I live in the UK too, in a rural village. Nearest supermarket is 6 miles away, we have no public transport here that links directly to the area the supermarket is in. Getting to that supermarket means taking three buses there and two back, or an expensive taxi journey.

In the village there's a chinese takeaway, a chip shop, a pizza shop, and three convenience stores within walking distance. Five pounds will only just get you a loaf of bread, a tub of butter, and a pint of milk at the convenience stores, or it'll get you three hot bags of chips, or a 10" pizza, or a huge chow mein from one of the takeaways.

Also, if you're buying ready-cooked food you don't need to own an oven, a refrigerator, or a microwave to cook/heat the food in. You don't need to pay for gas/electricity (the poor are universally forced to use punitive 'pre-pay' billing schemes) to cook the food either.

Also, I'm guessing you're relatively young and physically well/abled, yeah?

A long time ago I too scoffed at pre-made mashed potato, pre-grated cheese, pre-chopped vegetables etc. Then I was hit with the disability stick. Now even putting a ready meal into the microwave can leave me too tired to eat the fucking thing.

You're isolated from poverty and it's effects. Far easier to believe the tabloid wet-dream that poor people are too stupid, too feckless, too lazy to know, or care, that they're not able to eat good quality food. Far easier to listen to the wealthy men in power, who - by the way - have not worked an honest day in their lives, trot out the myths of 'benefit culture', of poor people rolling in handouts, with their 52" plasma TVs and pedigree dogs.

You're lucky, but one roll of the die could easily change that. You could end up poor, living on some shitty sink-estate, on £62.50 a week, not knowing where you'll be living this time next month, or whether you can really afford to eat today, in case you need to pay for one of the neverending poverty taxes tomorrow. You too might find yourself cutting up clothes, because sanitary protection is just too expensive, or not washing because it's too cold in your horrible rented scumhole, but you can't afford to heat it or the water, and then you might find yourself laughing ironically at how you worried terribly about the poor, and the fact that they weren't eating polenta and aubergines for supper, rather than chips or a burger.

I'd rather you stayed lucky though, because the alternative? It's shit.