A food bank has reported a 70% increase in new users as the spiralling cost of living crisis means people "can't afford to put the oven on".
A recent report by the British Retail Consortium has revealed shop prices have risen by a record 5.1 per cent in in the last month. A combination of rising inflation and surging energy bills has left West Cheshire Foodbank, which has centres in Ellesmere Port, Neston and Chester, in an "unsustainable situation".
The charity currently supports 13,000 people across the region and, earlier this year, staff predicted they would face a "tsunami" amid increasing demand and plummeting food stocks heading into the autumn. Now, trustee Ian Oulton has desribed the foodbank's current predicament as a "disaster".
