Slider Image 1 Content
On the breadline: inflation overwhelms Europe’s food banks
With no job and speaking little of the language, Olena Vinykova has relied on her local food bank to cope with the “very hard” situation she found herself in since fleeing Ukraine for Germany seven months ago. If she had arrived any later, her situation could have been even worse.
Surging food and fuel prices mean millions more people in Germany are struggling to make ends meet, forcing many food banks to shut their doors to thousands of new applicants. That includes the one used by Vinykova in Friedberg, about 15 miles north of Frankfurt.
The former nurse, who left her husband and grown-up children in Bakhmut, now on the front line of Ukraine’s war with Russia, asked the Financial Times to “say thank you” to the volunteers for their “amazing” work.
Across Europe food bank use is soaring as the highest inflation for a generation hits the region’s poorest, who spend a greater proportion of their income on energy and food, the hardest.
Charities from Spain to Latvia report 20 to 30 per cent higher demand than last year and expect a further increase this winter. In Bulgaria, one of the poorest countries in the EU, there was a three-quarters jump between September and October in people using the national food bank, according to the country’s food bank director Tzanka Milanova. “Inflation is gnawing away at people’s finances,” said Milanova. “More people end up below the poverty line.” Government bodies have exhausted their budgets for food aid, forcing Bulgarian charities to turn to food banks.
Over a third of Germany’s 962 food banks — called Tafel — have stopped taking new applicants beyond the 2mn they already help. This is the first time many have taken such a drastic step, after which demand rose more than 50 per cent this year for access to the fruit, vegetables, bread and other essentials they collect from shops and donors.
“We could double the number of customers if we took everyone who asked,” said Peter Radl, chair of the Friedberg food bank, which provides a basket of supplies every two weeks to 700 families, of which about 130 come from Ukraine. “But space is limited, we have a total of 120 baskets, and there is only so much our volunteers can do,” he added.
You are seeing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is most likely due to being offline or JavaScript being disabled in your browser.
“It is surprising for a rich country like Germany to have so many people who cannot afford to feed themselves properly,” said Katja Bernhard, a board member of the food bank association for the Hesse region.
Yet soaring energy prices, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have pushed over a quarter of the German population into “fuel poverty” — defined as spending more than 10 per cent of income on energy — up from 14.5 per cent last year, according to the country’s council of economic experts.
More than a fifth of the EU population was already unable to heat their home sufficiently last year, before the latest price surge, according to the latest data from Eurostat, the EU statistics agency.
In November, eurozone price growth slowed for the first time in 17 months, dipping from 10.6 per cent to 10 per cent. But this was little consolation for people struggling to make ends meet, especially when average wages have risen only 4 per cent in the past year.
Energy prices across the single currency area are still almost 35 per cent higher than a year ago, while food, alcohol and tobacco cost more than 13 per cent extra, according to Eurostat.
The price of some essentials has risen even faster. In the wider EU, milk prices have soared 43 per cent in the past year, while pork costs 55 per cent more and Japonica rice 68 per cent more.
In central and eastern Europe, the cost of staples has increased even more sharply. In Hungary, bread prices have risen by 80 per cent over the past year. There, the national food bank works via a network of charitable groups, which has expanded by almost a quarter to 530 this year. Its spokesman András Nagygyörgy estimates it helps 221,000 people, adding: “Since the start of the inflationary spiral, we have been witnessing an inflow of organizations.”
Giovanni Bruno, president of the Italian food bank foundation, estimated an additional 85,000 people had sought their help this year. “Many people who ask for food are now young, even students trying to save money to pay electricity or heating bills,” he said.
Inflation has also led to a fall in the amount of
Add These Honey-Glazed Fried Dough Balls to Your List of Favorite Hanukkah Recipes
The Festival of Lights would not be complete without delicious Hanukkah foods to keep the celebrations going (for all eight nights!). Observed on the Hebrew calendar date of 25 Kislev — Sunday, December 18th this year — the holiday recognizes the rededication of Jerusalem’s Holy Temple during the second century BC As the story goes, the Maccabees revolted against Greek occupiers and recaptured the temple. They needed to burn a candelabra for eight days in succession in order to rededicate the temple, but they only had enough oil for one day. Miraculously, the candles stayed lit the entire time, which is why we celebrate the “Festival of Lights” today.
Traditional Hanukkah recipes use oil to commemorate the same oil that keeps the lights burning, which often means fried food — and lots of it! In the spirit of the holiday, we rounded up our favorite crisp latkes and fluffy, jelly-filled sufganiyot — and because one cannot live off fried food for all eight nights — we also gathered mains like juicy roast chicken, salmon and brisket. Low on time? There are plenty of easy Hanukkah dishes — try our 3-ingredient applesauce — in addition to the more involved projects that are well worth the effort.
So brush up on your Hanukkah facts and make the most of the holiday with an abundance of snacks, Hanukkah appetizers and Hanukkah desserts. (Pro tip: You can never have too many!)
Kansas City Tanner’s Bar & Grill’s new server is a robot
Sonny loads up with trays of grilled chicken sandwiches, fries and salad as he heads to table 42 at Tanner’s Bar & Grill in Red Bridge Shopping Center. Dishes delivered, Sonny turns and heads back to the kitchen.
But customer Bond Faulwell of Overland Park wonders aloud, “Do we leave WD-40 for the tip?”
Sonny is a new robot server at the south Kansas City restaurant.
Trade magazine Nation’s Restaurant News said robots are uniquely positioned to support restaurants through the current wave of labor shortages. They are best used for tasks that are physical and repetitive, freeing up employees for more important tasks such as interacting with customers. It said the robot should always be escorted by a human.
Tanner’s, at 11134 Holmes Road, pays an undisclosed monthly fee for Sonny, but a spokeswoman said they will not pass the cost on to customers by increasing prices.
Kitchen employees place orders on Sonny’s two trays, plug in the table number and send it off to the dining room.
Servers meet Sonny at the table and hand the dishes to customers. Then they plug in a code to send the robot back to the kitchen.
“We’re amazed by the little robot running around,” said Jim Ogden of Overland Park.
Sonny, created by California’s Bear Robotics Inc., can also be loaded with dirty plates to take back to the kitchen, then it is cleaned and sanitized before making another delivery. It tends to spill drinks when maneuvering from tile to carpet, so for now it is just taking plates.
“It does help, especially with the bigger tables,” said Tiffany Hearld, manager. “And the kids love it. They want it to bring their food.”