The Guardian cited a research, prepared by British food bank The Trussell Trust and British food delivery company Deliveroo, saying that 1.3 million parents across the United Kingdom are planning to obtain groceries from a food bank due to rising costs of living. Moreover, 88% of those surveyed by the companies said that their monthly food bills had increased in the past three months.
About 20% of those surveyed admitted that they had been unable to cook hot food at least once in the past three months due to rising prices of electricity and the cost of using the oven, with 58% of respondents saying they had had to cut back on heating in their homes due to rising household bills. A third of parents admitted that they had had to skip one meal a day to cope with other costs.
The Trussell Trust and Deliveroo prepared the research prior to entering a partnership with one another to provide about two million meals and support for people on the verge of hunger in the UK.
"Our new partnership with Deliveroo will help us support food banks to provide emergency food and in-food-bank support to thousands of people in immediate crisis while we work towards our long-term vision of a future where nobody needs to turn to charity to get by," Emma Revie, the chief executive of The Trussell Trust, said, as quoted by The Guardian.
Since the end of February, the cost of gas on the European market has been showing strong volatility against the backdrop of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. In early March, fears of a possible ban on the purchase of Russian energy resources in Europe sent gas prices up beyond historical highs for four days in a row, reaching a peak of $3,892 per 1,000 cubic meters on 7 March. Throughout March, energy prices in the EU spiraled up 45% from a year earlier.