More people will knock on the door of the food bank if the cabinet does not intervene further to reduce rising energy prices. Ton Sleeking, chairman of Food Bank Southeast Drenthe, fears this.
He notices that the number of customers is increasing in the branches in Emmen, Coevorden and Borger-Odoorn. A few months ago there were still four hundred households that structurally knocked on the door, now there are 530. Every week he receives twenty to thirty new applications. “And that while donations are decreasing, and supermarket deliveries are decreasing,” said Sleeking in the Radio Drenthe program. Cassata.
Due to these circumstances, a ‘worry winter’ is imminent, Sleeking predicts. “The image that it is only about benefit recipients is really a misconception. It is precisely people who have to take one or two jobs and get into debt.”
According to Sleeking, the government should have taken measures much earlier to quell the consequences of high inflation. Germany and France were already doing this before the summer holidays, he saw to his great annoyance. “We were all told here that we would all become a bit poorer, and that we had to tighten our belts. But go do that, if you have a minimum income.”
The repairs now being done by the cabinet will not help enough. Sleeking does not yet see that it will care about the proverbial ‘sip on a drink’. “I have yet to see if it will be a drink, and how big that gulp will be.” He has calculated for himself that his small family will spend 500 euros a month in energy in a house that is not too large. Then he has already included the result of the price ceiling for energy.
Not only ‘The Hague’ will have to deliver, the municipalities of Drenthe and the provincial government should also lend a hand, says Sleeking. “If you see that the influx of customers is increasing and the supply is less, then the governments have something to do.”
The Food Bank Southeast Drenthe must also be able to keep itself afloat. This costs 75,000 euros on an annual basis, more than half of which consists of donations. Sleeking therefore advocates targeted measures. “The question is: how do you get the money to the people who need it most? We have constantly pushed the implementation problem aside. When there is a problem, a measure is taken, and then it is often ready. But then it really only starts. That phase is very lacking, how you can reach customers to solve a problem.”