Food bank users declining potatoes as cooking costs too high, says Iceland boss

theguardian.com:

Some food bank users are declining to accept products such as potatoes as they cannot afford the energy to boil them, the boss of the supermarket Iceland has said, as the soaring cost of living pushes vulnerable groups to the financial brink.

Richard Walker, who says the 1,000-stores in the budget chain are in the “poorest communities in the UK”, also called on the government to help businesses that are being forced to increase prices significantly as their own costs dramatically increase.

“I think the cost of living crisis is the single most important domestic issue we are facing as a country,” the Iceland managing director told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. “It is incredibly concerning. We are hearing of some food bank users declining products such as potatoes and other root veg because they can’t afford to boil them.”

The cost of living continues to rapidly increase, with inflation rising to a three-decade high of 6.2% in February, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, fuelled by the rising cost of petrol and diesel and a wide range of goods from food to toys and games.

Annual food price inflation was 5.1%, the ONS said. Food prices rose by 0.9% between January and February – the largest monthly increase since 2012.

Walker said that, in reality, the inflation on food was actually “pushing 10%”, and was already higher on items such as milk because of the cost of all the processes involved in producing it.

He said that while some issues affecting inflation, such as supply shortages, would eventually ease, others would not, and, ultimately, the age of cheap food shopping in the UK might be over.

“Systemically, if you look at it you could argue food has been too cheap for too long but [price increases]