King's Lynn's foodbank calls on Chancellor to prioritise tackling rising cost of living
Rishi Sunak will be unveiling his 'Spring Statement' in the House of Commons just after Prime Minister's Questions tomorrow
Last updated 22nd Mar 2022
King's Lynn's foodbank is calling on the Chancellor to prioritise tackling rising food and fuel prices as part of his Spring Statement on Wednesday.
Rishi Sunak will be speaking in the House of Commons just after Prime Minister's Questions tomorrow.
His statement is largely being seen as chance for him to make tweaks and changes to the Government's Autumn budget which was presented in late October.
It's understood he'll be looking to cut fuel duty and increase National Insurance taxes, among other things.
Helen Gilbert, is the project manager of the Kings Lynn Food Bank.
She told us that the picture looks bleak if little support is made available: "Week before last we fed 175 people, which is like start of the pandemic sort of numbers and double what we would expect to see for a weekly amount at this time of year.
"That was a real shock, while we are now back down to normal levels this last week we just don't know what's to come.
"Most people are coming in telling us that they are struggling with their energy bills.
"With rising numbers of people coming to us and decreased donations, we're at risk in the future of running out of food, if this carries on.
"That's not the case at present, but if the same situation carries on we may be in trouble".
Ms Gilbert went on to say that local people are doing all they can to ride out the storm, but affording the very basics is becoming difficult: "It is a real tussle as to how people spend their money and it's not a case at the moment of asking people to tighten their belts because they are being frivolous, when I talk to people they are doing everything they can to get every penny out of every pound they have, and there's no where left for them to tighten their belts.
"We are already seeing people struggling with rising energy costs and bills are already going up.
"Heating oil has gone up dramatically over a very short space of time and normally those prices are starting to come down at this time of year.
"We're hearing time and time again of people not being able to afford heating and not being able to afford hot water and that is heart-breaking".