More people than ever are applying for membership in order to buy donated food at a discounted price at the Stockholm City Mission’s retail chain Matmissionen.
– You can’t buy the food you want for your children, says Food Mission’s head Johan Rindvall to TV4 Nyheterna.
Inflation fell slightly in April, but the queues outside Matmissionen’s store in Kista are still longer than ever. There are food items that often have a short expiration date or other defects that are sold at a cheaper price.
The store chain’s manager, Johan Rindvall, tells us that the short expiration date doesn’t matter that much when you can only afford to eat one and the same thing every day of the week.
– You may only be able to afford protein one or two days a week and you may not be able to buy the food you want for your children. So we saw above all last year an increased desperation, says Johan Rindvall.
Mostly families with children
Around 40 percent of Matmissionen’s members are families with children, and roughly the same proportion are pensioners and single households combined.
Anyone can come into the store and shop at the regular price, but if you want to get access to the discount, you must be approved as a member. The requirement is that you must not have an income of more than SEK 12,163 a month, which is the Social Insurance Agency’s level for guarantee compensation.
– We get calls from people who know they can’t become members, but still wonder if we can do something, says Johan Rindvall and tells how caseworkers at various authorities tip off financially vulnerable people about the Food Mission’s activities.
Matmissionen is now seeing a substantial increase in membership applications from people with incomes that are higher than Försäkringskassan’s level for guarantee compensation.
– It is worrying, he says.
The food mission is run by the Stockholm City Mission and are so-called “social food shops”.
The idea behind the project is to reduce food waste by selling goods that would otherwise have been thrown away to the most economically vulnerable in society.
The Stockholm stores are in Hägersten, Jakobsbergs Centrum, Hallunda Centrum, Handen, Kista Centrum and Norrtälje. Skåne Stadsmission has a social store in the Mobilia shopping center in Malmö.