This is a terribly timely debate as we are in the grips of what is already a difficult winter. Citizens Advice figures show that one in five people have already cut back on their food shop in the last three months to save money. One in 10 anticipate having to access crisis support this winter, like foodbanks or fuel vouchers. Crisis support, that is, to help them have things that they need to stay alive, because food isn't a luxury, it's a fundamental necessity.

I'd like to focus a little on the mental health toll taken by hunger, because hunger doesn't just mark people physically, it isn't only measured in stunted growth or empty bellies; hunger starves people of happiness, it warps their self-esteem and it eats away at their potential. Hunger traps people in panic and distress as the constant worry about where the next meal is going to come from weighs down on a person's state of mind. It scars people psychologically and it can trigger exhaustion, embarrassment, guilt and shame.

This is a reality faced by frightening numbers of people in Wales. The 'Food Security in Wales' report showed that a fifth of our population worried about running out of food. In the past 12 months, 14 per cent of our population had run out of food before they could afford to buy more. Now, this debate focuses on the right to food, and along with food I'd package in the right to dignity and a life free from the worry about food. As the Trussell Trust's Susan Lloyd-Selby has said, no-one should face the indignity of needing emergency food. But too often in our society, poverty is instead paraded almost as a punishment.

Let's cast our minds back to last year, when the societal debate around free school meals in England made headlines, and pictures of the measly portions afforded to children in some local authorities were shared on social media. We saw halved peppers in clingfilm, handfuls of tuna or pasta in paltry little plastic bags. It seemed for all the world as though the people putting the packages together must have been instructed to limit any chance that other people in the child's family could benefit from those packages. Why else put in part of a vegetable, or open a tin of tuna and scoop out only half? It would have taken an effort to be that cruel. It would have taken time to methodically measure the exact amount of compassion and support that was afforded to each child with those parcels, limiting everything, keeping a cap on that kindness. And what message did it send? Because free school meals and food generally isn't just about nutrition. As important as that is, it should also be about a sense of plenty, of not scraping through and getting just enough to just about manage. It should be about delighting in food—not gorging or gluttony, but having enough, feeling complete.

Our relationships with food are complicated. It can be a comfort when there's enough, but it can be a menace and a torment when there isn't. The children's future food inquiry quotes Siobhan Clifford, a headteacher, in saying that children tell you about

'pains in their stomach…about going to bed hungry...headaches…tiredness…and the distorted relationship with food that that creates'.

Some children end up stealing food from the bins that other children have thrown away. There shouldn't be that dividing line that sets out that some people can have more food than they need whilst others struggle to be sustained. Environmentally, economically, socially and morally it makes no sense. It results perversely in both food waste and wanton food scarcity. Those children stealing from bins.

Dirprwy Lywydd, we need to look at our supply chains, create an affordable, sustainable food system fit for future generations, supporting local markets, co-operatives, community retailers, processors, distributors that work together to ensure high quality food standards. But whilst we're developing those supply chains, let's look as well at the links that bind us, the stock we keep of decency. No-one should go to bed hungry or driven to despair through worrying about where their meals come from. In twenty-first century Wales or in any country, it's a blight that shouldn't exist.