At at time of the year when excessive spending on food hits its peak, the fact that people in the district will be going hungry this festive season is perhaps something that we don’t want to think about too closely.

However, ignoring a problem does not make it go away, and it is all credit to 13-year-old Lara Thornton, daughter of Labour councillor Gill Thornton, that she refused to ignore the plight of the hungry this Christmas.

Lara persuaded her mum to organise a food collection among other councillors in Bradford district, and the resulting 50-plus carrier bags full of goods will now be distributed to the needy through the offices of the Bradford Metropolitan Food Bank.

The Food Bank does tremendous work in this respect, and of course many people give their time, donations and charity to keep it going, helping it to provide up to 300 food parcels every single month to the needy of the district.

And there lies an even more unpalatable truth in the work of the Food Bank, for while many of us might mitigate our extra spending at Christmastime with a little more in the way of charitable gestures, poverty is most definitely not a seasonal problem.

The Telegraph & Argus has reported many times in the past how the Food Bank has struggled to get the donations it requires to fulfil the needs of those it serves.

It would be good if they received steady contributions throughout the year – and even better if something more permanent could be done to tackle the problem of families going hungry in Bradford.