BRADFORD (AFP) – On an overcast morning in Bradford, northern England, a steady stream of locals arrive at a foodbank to collect produce parcels described as “a lifesaver” during the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
Bradford Central Foodbank is helping twice as many people compared to pre-pandemic, as spiraling prices for energy, food and other basics leave a growing number of Britons struggling.
“The numbers since I’ve been a volunteer have only multiplied and I can only see it getting worse,” said Karl Carroll, 33, who has relied on the parcels since 2019 and is now volunteering at the foodbank.
“I’ve barely got £40 ($50, 47 euros) by the time I’ve paid everything out, so I imagine families are struggling in more ways,” he told AFP.
Simon Jackson, 43, an unemployed former supermarket worker who is accessing long-term government sickness benefits, has been a foodbank user since February.
“It is a tougher time at the minute... the cost of living’s skyrocketed to a point of we’re having to use foodbanks a bit more,” he said.
Jackson currently gets around £900 a month in various government support payments but, like Carroll, once his bills are paid, there is little left over for food.
Rising prices are exacerbating the situation.
One of the clearest signs of the crisis is the surge in foodbank use.
The Trussell Trust charity says its more than 1,400 affiliated sites handed out 2.1 million parcels in the past year -- 830,000 of them to children -- in a 14 percent increase on pre-pandemic levels.
Its central Bradford operation is hosted three days a week by a local church organization, and can supply people with only three parcels within six months to manage demand.
Started in 2011, it is one of around 30 free food providers now in the city of just over half a million residents, and currently helps around 1,000 people a month, said manager Josie Barlow.
The government announced Thursday a new support package aimed at the most vulnerable, ahead of an expected 42 percent jump in energy bills in October -- which follows a 54 percent hike last month.
But in Bradford, as elsewhere, it cannot allay fears that worse to come.