Throughout the week, we have been highlighting how it is becoming increasingly difficult for many people in Bermuda to make ends meet.This newspaper’s The Cost of Living series has shown how electricity bills have gone up 70 percent in eight years, and the price of staple foods have increased by more than 50 percent in a decade.In the same columns over the week, we have also reported about even more job losses, which will put yet more strain on people financially, especially if you take this figure: In 2007 the two-parent family with two children spent $7,000 a year on basic food. In 2012, it costs that amount for a single parent with one child.Families campaigner Martha Dismont has urged grocers to reduce their prices and Sheelagh Cooper, of the Coalition for the Protection of Children, has asked for a national plan on poverty.She also issued this very stark warning: “It must be recognised that although the charitable sector contributes enormously to serving the basic food needs for the very poor, the demand has reached a critical point and it is doubtful whether this sector can continue to meet the increasing demand much longer without more government help.”It is difficult to disagree with Mrs Cooper’s idea of a national plan. Perhaps it should have been done at the same time as the National Health Plan — poverty and health are intertwined.Maybe at the very least there could be a ‘poverty summit’ with Government taking the lead and engaging with the relevant charities and organisations at the coalface of dealing with these issues. Out of that summit could come a true appreciation of how bad things really are and some ideas of ways of dealing with it.There would be more merit in this than spending time consulting over whether to move a public holiday or not.