'Food poverty crisis is never acceptable'

Renfrewshire councillors have been urged to guard against complacency over food insecurity as UK food inflation increased to an annual high this month.

- JACK THOMSON, LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTER

SNP depute council leader Jacqueline Cameron said she and her peers shouldn’t “get used to this” as she labelled the situation unacceptable.

She issued the warning as the topic was discussed at a meeting of the Fairer Renfrewshire sub-committee-a task force which focuses support for those affected by poverty and the cost-of-living crisis.

It came as UK food prices rose 2.8 per cent in the year to May.

Councillor Cameron, chair of the sub-committee and representative for Johnstone South and Elderslie, said: “There was a time when food banks didn’t exist and now we seem to be quite used to the fact that food banks exist and the cost-of-living crisis is continuing and continuing.