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Britons turn to pet food amid cost of living crisis

Friday, 02 December 2022 1:16 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 02 December 2022 3:40 PM ]

‘No heating, no food’: Cost of living crisis pushes more Britons to turn to food banks.

The high cost of living crisis in the United Kingdom has prompted Britons in some cities to eat pet food.

British media reported on Thursday that people were “eating pet food” because they can’t afford real food anymore.

According to the report, parts of Wales were hit so hard by poverty that people were forced to stoop to the lowest levels to just feed their families.

People are ‘eating pet food’ because they can't afford real food anymore

The community worker also said people are heating food using a radiator or a candle due to huge energy costs.

It comes after new Census data suggests six of Wales’ most deprived communities are in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.

Last month, food costs rose again, with shop prices of groceries over 12 percent higher than a year before, according to the report.

‘I’m still shocked by the fact that we have people who are eating pet food,” Mark Seed, who runs a community food project in Trowbridge east Cardiff, told the BBC.

‘[There are] people who are trying to heat their food on a radiator or a candle,” he said.

Seed noted that nowadays British households that were struggling to survive could be found in areas beyond the regions that were long associated with poverty. He said to tackle the poverty, the government needed to change its policy to focus on people and not places.

“Cardiff is a flourishing city however there are pockets of deprivation which are simply not acceptable,” he said.

The charity officials say people were not being paid enough to afford the essentials as the cost of living crisis is pushing prices way up.

Official government statistics indicate the UK's inflation rose to a 41-year high of above eleven percent.

The government continues to blame the war in Ukraine and the COVID pandemic as the main factors behind the economic downturn.

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