Escalating 'cost of living crisis' impacting families

The impact of the escalating ‘cost of living crisis’ has been seen in the steep rise in food bank use in the city and calls by a local MLA for the Department of Education to ensure families receive “vital” holiday hunger payments over the Easter school holidays.

As British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, delivered his Budget on Wednesday the Cost of Living Crisis Campaign held a Budget Day protest in the  Guildhall Square.  According to the organisation, foodbank use in the city hit a record high, on top of a 318% increase between January 2022 and January 2023. 

Speaking to Derry News, Ellen Moore, a spokesperson for the Cost of Living Crisis Campaign said: “Hunt’s Tory Budget was, as pundits predicted, stable and boring and achieved very little. 

“This is while families locally are facing a more than 8% hike in their rates bills, voted for by all of the big parties on Derry City and Strabane District Council. Fuel and Energy costs remain criminally high, while corporations made billions in profits. 

“The real savings being made by these companies are not being properly passed on to customers,  at the pumps or in their home heating bills. 

“The cost of food in our supermarkets is rising on a daily basis. Food inflation rose by 14.5% in February while fresh food inflation rose by an even greater 16.3%. All of this makes it more difficult for parents to make healthy choices for their children,” said Ms Moore.

She added that families across the North had been more affected by the rise in prices, cuts to services and the lower rate of pay for workers than families in other regions.

“In this context, the British government has found itself with additional tens of billions of pounds it had set aside,” said Ms Moore. “The last thing we needed was a boring budget. We needed one which redistributed wealth into the bank accounts of working families.

“We call on the Secretary of State to insist there is more funding to address the cost-of-living emergency and its disproportionate effect on families locally.” 

The effect of the ongoing ‘cost of living crisis’ has also been reflected in a call by Foyle MLA, Pádraig Delargy (Sinn Féin) for the  Department of Education to ensure families receive “vital” holiday hunger payments over the Easter school holidays.     

Mr Delargy said: “Uncertainty over whether families will be paid holiday hunger payments over the Easter school holidays is deeply concerning. 

“These payments are a lifeline for families that depend on free school meals and help ensure that children get a hot meal during school holidays. 

“Many families are already struggling to put food on the table as living costs continue to rise, and stripping this payment away will only add to the hardship they face. The Department of Education must ensure that funding for this vital support is protected and is available to families over Easter. 

“We need an Executive formed now and parties working together around the table to tackle holiday hunger, support families and legislate to end the constant cliff-edge over these payments.”

In addition, a Community Fridge was launched at the Playtrail in the Pennyburn area of the city on Saturday, an initiative increasingly replicated by community, voluntary and commercial organisations across Derry and the North. 

The Community Fridge Network was established by HUBBUB in 2017, which now supports more than 500 fridges across Britain and the North. Its main purpose is to save fresh food, an estimated 6.8m meals per year, from going to waste.

Playtrail Community Fridge currently receives donations through a partnership arrangement with FairshareGo, which allows eligible organisations to collect surplus food for free from their local supermarket, and Tesco Strand Road and Lisnagelvin. 

Playtrail Community Fridge has been up and running since January 2023 and hopes to explore additional partnerships with other local supermarkets, in order to allow additional opening hours. 

Playtrail Community Fridge currently collects from Tesco on a Friday night and opens on Saturday from 11.00am to 1.00pm. Anyone is welcome to come to the community fridge, bring along a reusable bag and take home what they need from what is in stock on the day.