by Patrick Ekstrand, Fu Yiming
STOCKHOLM, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) — As food prices continue to rise, more and more people in Sweden, a Nordic country known for its well-developed welfare system, are seeking help with daily food.
Since last spring, more and more Swedes have found themselves struggling with sky-high food prices and have seen no alternative but to join charity programs that offer free or highly discounted food items.
Jonas Wihlstrand, secretary general of the Swedish City Missions, recently told Xinhua that the number of members in the social supermarkets run by the mission has doubled since last spring.
“Most of the new members are single parents on unemployment benefits, pensioners and unemployed youth,” Wihlstrand said, adding that they would step up efforts to help the most deprived as staggering inflation shows no sign of ending anytime soon .
The Swedish City Missions offer food programs in ten cities across the country. In the capital Stockholm alone, around 5,500 families and individuals have registered as new members at the four social supermarkets in the city’s suburbs so far this year.
Membership of such social supermarkets is free for those on an income below the subsistence minimum, and it entitles them to a discount of at least two-thirds off regular retail prices. Members can buy discounted groceries for up to SEK 300 (about US$29) per week.
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, Western sanctions against Russia and extreme weather conditions have continued to drive up inflation in Sweden, making life difficult for many Swedish families.
Sweden’s 12-month inflation reached 8 percent in July, after record figures four months in a row, according to data published by Statistics Sweden on Friday. In particular, the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to soar in July, registering a staggering 13.5 percent increase compared to July 2021.
Johan Rindevall, head of all four social supermarkets in Stockholm, told Xinhua that most of the new members joined after the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine when it became clear that inflation was not only staggering but most likely persistent.
Recently, the number of members has grown at an unprecedented rate, Rindevall said.
“Around 3,000 of our new members joined in the last two months,” he said, adding that “this is an unprecedented increase that we have not seen since our first stores launched in 2015.”
To meet the increasing demand, two of the four social supermarkets were opened in Stockholm earlier this year and a fifth store will be launched in the capital in September.
– Many of the members talk about inflation and worries about the future when they visit our stores, says Rindevall.
The city mission in Eskilstuna, a town 9 miles west of Stockholm, has also seen an increased demand for food support. Applications for the mission’s membership have been so high that the mission has had to turn away many families in recent months due to financial difficulties.
“Food has become increasingly expensive due to inflation and when schools closed for the summer holidays, many families realized that they could not cope as their children suddenly did not get free school lunches,” Carina Helmisdotter, team leader at Eskilstuna’s City Mission told Xinhua.
“We are only able to relieve the most urgent needs,” Helmisdotter said.
Wihlstrand said he worries that food fads are worsening and that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening with rising inflation.
“The Swedish economy may have developed enormously in the last three decades, but we have also seen the gap between those who are rich and those who are poor increase. I think that Sweden is one of the countries in Europe where this inequality is increasing. the most” , Wihlstrand said.
He said he believes the current situation is likely to prevail for many years because “the cost of living is increasing while incomes are falling behind.” (1 Swedish krona = 0.096 US dollars)