Cost of living crisis – You can donate to the foodbank with your order.
The cost of living is hitting everyone at the moment, with bills rising, fuel costs rising and everyday food items increasing drastically. The Bank of England has predicted inflation will peak at 10%, it’s currently sitting at 9%. Prior to this it was predicted to be 8%, prior to that, 7% so it is far from certain that this will be the worst of the inflation.
This is putting pressure on the poorest in society, so we urge you to make a donation in the checkout or help in any way you can.
Why is inflation so bad?
Inflation is at it’s highest for 40 years. If inflation is at 10% throughout the year, the pounds you have in your pocket are worth 10% less than they were the previous year, meaning they can only buy 90% of what they could buy the year before. If this happens again next year then the problem gets worse and worse. For someone who is using a foodbank, having an additional 10% of their spending power disappear is terrible news. However the problem can be even worse than it seems when looking at percentages.
Why has it happened?
There are many factors which are causing prices to rise, firstly record amounts of money has been printed in the last two years because of the covid pandemic. The Covid pandemic is still having an impact with lockdowns in China causing shortages and therefore price increases. The war in Ukraine is pushing up prices again due to shortages. Many fear we may be heading into a global food crisis which could cause shortages and massive price rises for everyday food items. We have found our own costs going up with Brexit over the last few years so there has been a perfect storm of factors which are pushing up prices.
How much have prices really gone up?
The 10% figure seems straightforward, but it doesn’t mean everything has gone up by 10%. This figure is calculated from an average ‘basket’ of items people will buy (this has recently come into some criticism for not really representing what people would buy, so lower income people would actually be buying a bigger proportion of the items which had gone up, and perhaps not so many men’s suits!).
Some items will have increased by less or perhaps not even at all, whereas others have shot up in price. For example bread is up 16% pasta is up 50%!
Who does inflation hit the most?
Inflation hits the poorest the hardest. This is because people with less money have less disposable income, this is the money they have left over after they have paid rent, bills, council tax etc, things they have to pay and have little influence over. Someone on a higher income will be hit by higher energy bills, however they will have more disposable income so it hits them proportionally less. People on a higher income can cut back a bit on what they are spending on non essential items and activities and still have enough to spend on the essentials. Many people on a lower income who were managing to pay their bills and have enough left after have quickly been put in the position of having to choose between keeping their heating on or having enough to buy food to feed their families.
This problem is compounded by a divide in society, people who are well off don’t have all of their wealth in cash, they may own a properties, own shares and other assets, these aren’t affected by inflation and are often the things that rise in value, so the “haves” get through it much better than the “have not’s”
Is it going to get better?
Certainly not in the short term, the full effect may be masked by the time of year, as the huge rise in energy prices is leading to energy bills soaring, but fortunately coming into summer people shouldn’t need to use the heating as much, however the price cap is due to increase in October, just when we are coming into the colder weather so the need to heat homes is much greater.
Usage of food banks has been rising and from April 21 to March 22 more than 2.1 million parcels were given to people facing financial hardship across the country.
Ethical Superstore has worked with the Newcastle West End Foodbank for many years now, with our Food Bank Friday campaign as an alternative to Black Friday and the donations option in our checkout. Since 2014 we have donated 32,339 items through the Foodbank Friday campaign and your generous donations over the years have raised over £85,000 for them!
Donating to the Newcastle West End Foodbank through our checkout is easy, simply select Newcastle West End Foodbank from the drop down list of charities on the final stage of the checkout;
Then enter the amount you would like to donate;
The amount will be added to your final checkout basket. We top this up with a further 20% on what you donate. This money is used by the foodbank to order essential items which they have demand for. This is every useful for them as it can be very unpredictable what donations they will get from elsewhere, so they can use this to fill gaps in what they need and order what they are short of. It’s not just food items they order, but things like soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo bars, tampons, deodorant, toilet paper as well as everyday grocery items.
Please show your support and make a donation.
You can find out more about the Newcastle West End Food Bank and how you can help here.
The Newcastle West End Foodbank is part of the Trussell Trust.
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