Launching the Children’s Future Food Inquiry final report last month, actress Emma Thompson said: “In a wealthy society that claims to value compassion and humanity, how can we tolerate the injustice of millions of children going hungry?” The report, which found an astonishing number of young children to be underfed on a daily basis, has been met with incredulity.

Reports that children are turning up to school with nearly or totally empty lunchboxes in the hope that someone else, sometimes a teacher, will fill them, or that holiday lunch schemes are needed alongside free school meals, clearly shocked Dame Emma.