Contents of a single parcel go up by £19 - food bank provider

Annie McCormack said people were coming to her food bank in tears

As the cost of living soars more people are turning to food banks to make ends meet.

New Office for National Statistics data has shown that the price of pasta, tea, and chips has increased, with vegetable oil going up by 65% in a year.

Overall, the price of budget food in supermarkets rose by 17% in the year to September while inflation is at a 40-year high.

Food prices drove the latest rise in living costs in September, along with energy bills and transport costs.

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As a result, food banks are having to find the money to pay for the extra supplies.

Annie McCormack, who runs a food bank and anti-poverty charity Broke not Broken in Kinross, Perthshire, told the BBC the cost of a single food parcel had increased from £39 to as much as £58.

She explained: "If we're supporting 50, 60, 70 households of more than one person - there's an immediate cost implication for us. We are always having to chase funding.

"There's this never-ending cycle of filling that gap. I think there's been a normalising of food banks. But if we stop being a food bank people will suffer. And because we are in a small, rural area we know the people we are helping - we look in their eyes - my kids go to school with their kids.

"It might be the case in the future that we stop because we just can't afford to keep doing it."

People in tears

Food banks are seeing referrals from people who would previously have never crossed their path.

These are people who are in full-time employment, with mortgages, who thought their incomes were enough to live on.

Ms McCormack said people were coming in tears saying they did not understand why hardship was happening to them.

She said: "We are seeing lots of evidence of people working themselves into poverty because the cost of them travelling to their place of work and back is meaning they are earning less than they would if they were on welfare support.

"Food is the last thing on the list. You pay your rent or mortgage, your gas and electric and your council tax and food is always at the very end.

"Eighteen per cent of people in our area don't have any savings so there is no buffer for price increases or a change in circumstances and that all then falls to food banks."

The cost of a single food parcel has increased from £39 to as much as £58

She said she was surprised and horrified in equal measure on hearing the latest costs of a budget supermarket shop but had been expecting the increases.

"An overall 17% increase in food plus 10% increase in inflation on general goods and services is making people's incomes drop effectively and that's affecting them mentally and emotionally and is affecting relationships," she said.

"It's not just affecting their pockets, it's affecting every element of their lives and a lot of that is going to be very difficult to reverse.

"All of our clients are referred to us. But people are being referred to us over and over and over again for weeks and months at a time which tells us that their situation isn't improving, even if they're getting everything they're entitled to in terms of welfare support."

'It's going to get bleaker'

Ms McCormack said she did not envisage the situation improving with the appointment of the new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

"It's going to get bleaker," she said. "Everything is going up except income. We need someone who can commit to at least uprating benefits in line with inflation - food is going up 17% so even a 10% increase in benefits might not be enough for a lot of people.

"I love the fact the the new prime minister is from an ethnic minority background but he's a minority in a different way. He's a multi-millionaire married to a billionaire.

"I don't think someone in that position can really clearly see how being on a low income and using a food bank affects someone mentally for the rest of their lives.

"Millions of normal people are struggling at the minute and need help and they need help right now. There's no sense of urgency about what's happening in the UK government.

"People need money in their pockets and that's really the only way they are going to get out of the situation."