Many Britons are struggling financially and finding it hard to afford daily essentials in the cost of living crisis and a north London chef is no exception
Being a former chef, who was forced to reture after facing ill health, Derrick Carr has a head start when it comes to making the most out of food.
He said: “I know how to make food last, I don’t waste anything.”
The 66-year-old home cooks, but the trouble is, affording enough ingredients to stretch meals. According to the Mirror, he began claiming his pension in January but he struggles with having just over £1,000 a month in income, even though he uses food banks regularly.
He admits the situation makes him feel “tired” and “sad” and feels like he does not have enough energy.
He has been cooking a big dinner on Sundays, which is a traditional “Caribbean thing to do”, but makes it stretch until Wednesday, and sometimes he skips other meals in the day.
Mr Carr added: “Most days I have been skipping a meal or two. I might have some crackers and bread but I can’t afford cheese and stuff like that. Groceries have just gone up so much.”
In a May 2023 report, titled ‘Taking on UK Poverty’, CAP’s director of external affairs, Gareth McNab has said: “Amongst the people who came to CAP for debt help in 2022, we saw an increase in the numbers struggling to afford household bills and a higher demand for emergency food shops, fuel vouchers and help with other basic essentials.”
He added: “It is particularly concerning that more than 50 percent of the budgets we created for our clients were unsustainable due to low income, budgets that just can’t be balanced. More and more people are being driven to a place of extreme poverty and destitution, over half of our clients said that debt forced them to skip meals, and almost two-thirds said they were unable to afford basic hygiene products.”
Polls carried out by YouGov and commissioned by the charity Christians Against Poverty (CAP) show around nine in ten of the adult population in the UK think it’s important more is done to tackle poverty.
Polling data revealed around a third of the population have had to skip meals, with 40 percent of households with children doing so. It also revealed four out of five people expected poverty to increase in the UK next year.
The results highlighted the dire situation the UK is facing as it struggles to afford the high costs of groceries amid a barrage of other rising prices.
