READING in The Press, and also seeing on TV, it is good to know food banks are there for those who require them.

At the start of the 1940s, I was six and did not hear about food banks. For our breakfast, mum would make up a mug of cocoa with a thick slice of bread cut in to fingers to dunk into it.

I took my brothers a good walk to school, half way up the village of Rufforth.

I jumped up at the plum tree and got three plums, then I heard someone shout: “Joan could I please have those plums, that is called stealing from my tree, read the Commandment ‘Though Shalt Not Steal’.”

On the way home at 3.30pm, Mrs Steel was waiting at the farm gate with a bag of plums saying: “Take them home to your mum for you all to share. You only have to ask next time.”

Because we had a good garden, kept chickens, also rabbits we had one good meal a day to look forward to. We did not have much, but we all survived.

Joan Long, Kingfisher Drive, Bridlington.