Food banks across Germany are increasingly forced to ration supplies due to a sharp rise in demand, according to the head of the national food bank association, known as Tafel Deutschland.
A third of food banks had been compelled to introduce temporary admission stops or waiting lists, while 60% have reduced the quantity of food distributed, Andreas Steppuhn told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung in a story published on Friday.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, food banks in Germany have experienced a nationwide surge of 50% in the number of people seeking help, according to Steppuhn. Currently, around 1.6 million people facing poverty rely on these services, he added.
Food banks were struggling because pensions and wages were not keeping up with the rising cost of living, he explained.
“Food banks cannot make up for what the state has failed to address for decades,” Steppuhn said.
He urged politicians to take stronger measures to address growing poverty, noting that a proposed reduction in value-added tax (VAT) on food by Chancellor Olaf Scholz could be a first conceivable step, “but not much more than that.”