More and more people in this country are struggling to afford food. All over Norway, attendance at the food centres has increased sharply, with a tough summer being predicted for many.

The queues at the food centres are a barometer for the economic condition of the country’s inhabitants. Now the queues are increasing considerably and the general manager at Matsentralen Norge fears a difficult summer.

NTB reports further.

We cannot get hold of enough food for those who need it throughout the country. We provide more food aid than ever before, but we are unable to cover the increase in need, says general manager Per Christian Rålm of the Norwegian Food Center to Vårt Land.

So much food has been distributed that some warehouses are simply empty. Earlier this week, Bergens Tidende reported a crisis with empty warehouses at the Food Centre in Bergen. The food centres Vårt Land has spoken to in Tromsø, Trøndelag and Vestfold and Telemark also report great demand.

Rålm estimates a doubling of the needy from June last year to now.

Vestland and Bergen have the largest gap between the need and what the food centres are able to cover, the gap is also felt across the rest of the country as well.

We see that having children can be quite a tough experience right now as food prices have increased more than all other prices, which are also increasing at the same time. Caring for someone can now be experienced as a burden, he says.

General manager Rebekka Trevland in the Food Center Vestfold and Telemark tells about a completely new group that comes to get food distributed.

The Matsentralen also points to the obvious connection with the many economic burdens the population has been subjected to in recent times, burdens many believe the politicians are responsible for.

It’s because everything costs money: rising interest rates, high food prices, diesel prices. This means that we have a greater influx of single parents and families with young children. We expect that there will be even more after the summer, says Trevland.

She could of course also have mentioned the increase in electricity prices, which has been a heavy additional burden for the vast majority of households.

According to Trevland, the aid organisations they deliver to could receive 50 percent more food than they already do. However, changes in the food industry have meant that the Food Centre does not receive the same amount of goods as it did before.