N.B. soup kitchen says demand has skyrocketed as the cost of living continues to climb

With the rising cost of living, the Romero House soup kitchen in Saint John, N.B., has seen demand skyrocket, with many new faces coming to their take-out window these days to get a bite to eat.

“We’ve had an extraordinary amount of people who are living on fixed incomes,” says executive director Evelyn McNulty.

“It would be a lot of senior citizens, a lot of families who are working minimum wage, or just above minimum wage, and they’re just not able to make ends meet.”

As a community organization that helps to feed those in need, they know exactly how much rising food prices can pinch the pocketbook.

“Your money doesn’t go anywhere near where your money used to go,” says McNulty. “I think anyone who goes to Sobeys to pick up something for supper has noticed, I’m sure, a difference.”

But food is far from the only thing that’s getting more expensive. Customers at the pumps are feeling it too, as are homeowners with the cost of heating oil in New Brunswick rising by about six cents.

In Nova Scotia, meantime, the price of diesel climbed by 6.5 cents a litre in zone one Wednesday. This comes after the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board invoked the interrupter clause. It says the change was necessary due to significant shifts in the market price of diesel oil.

“The cost of energy in general is being impacted currently by the war in Ukraine, and will likely continue to be impacted on the short medium and even possibly the longer term,” says Michelle Robichaud, the incoming president of the Atlantica Centra for Energy.

“That’s one of the main reasons you’re seeing this jump.”