There will be more vulnerable people on Merseyside who will suffer from food poverty according to CEO of Micah Liverpool.
Catherine Kearney, CEO of Micah Liverpool, a social justice charity and food bank expressed her worries following the announcement.
She said: “It is highly likely that we are going to see an increase of people in Liverpool struggling with food poverty.
“We’ve seen an increase in February already, with people using the food banks and I guess it’s only going to get worse.”
Basic food and non-alcoholic beverage prices have risen by 3.3% in the year to January 2025, up from 2% in December 2024.
Liverpool is home to 3 of the 10 most economically deprived food deserts in England, it is estimated that almost a third of adults in Liverpool are food insecure.
This only adds to the stresses put on food banks like Micah in Liverpool who rely on the work of volunteers and food donated to them.
Kearney added: “We are just not sustainable, certainly for Micah we have had to limit the number of visits people can have at the food bank because we have limited resources – we’re a charity.”
She has called on the government to look at systemic change, and to ask why people cannot afford their food bills in the first place.
Grant Fitzner, the chief economist of the ONS told the BBC that the impact of inflations would be a “one-off.”
With food prices expected to rise, there are genuine concerns that this will hit the most vulnerable the hardest.
