Cost of living crisis is so bad in London food bank shelves are now empty

Shelves in food bank warehouses are standing empty as soaring bills and food prices force more families to rely on handouts. Alison Inglis-Jones, a volunteer at Norwood and Brixton Foodbank in Lambeth, said the rocketing cost of living meant it was seeing queues of people waiting outside before it opened.

Ms Inglis-Jones, who is also a Labour councillor for Clapham Common, said some people coming to the food bank couldn’t afford to switch on a hob to cook due to the surging price of electricity and gas. She described instances of people clinging on to her in desperation – adding that the numbers of people coming to the food bank had ballooned in the last three months.

Ms Inglis-Jones said: “It’s really like a developing country. Particularly in the last three months there has been a huge increase in demand. I have people clinging to me asking for help. People are really desperate.

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“We have queues of people. We open at 11 and at quarter past 10 we have a queue of 25 people and more people join after. I’m sitting with people who’ve done everything they can to budget and are running out of options. The cost of energy means people can’t switch on the hob. It’s not a case of choosing between heating and eating. People can’t afford to do either.”

The food bank, which is supported by charity The Trussell Trust, warned many shelves in its warehouses were bare due to the sudden surge in demand. In a post on Twitter from May 20, it said: “We are looking at lots of empty shelves in our warehouse as we see demand continuing to grow. So if you can consider a donation this weekend we need small jars [of] pasta sauce, long-life puddings, tinned fruit, savoury snacks and individual cartons [of] fruit juice.”

But Ms Inglis-Jones said the food bank was well prepared to cope with the extra number of people it was seeing. She said: “I think we will be okay. We are quite clear that people shouldn’t panic. People are incredibly generous with donations and we have the support of The Trussell Trust.”

She added: “It would be very helpful now if the national government gave people support with energy bills. We’re extremely grateful to the local government for the household support scheme but it’s centrally funded so there’s a limit to what they can do.”

Norwood and Brixton Foodbank hands out around 90 food parcels a day to families across Lambeth and gives many more to people who come to their hub in person. Packages include groceries like fruit and vegetables, coffee and tea, tinned soups and beans and other food cupboard essentials. The food bank also gives out toiletries, household cleaning products and baby products including nappies, baby food and formula milk.