This Is Rigged activists take over Glasgow in protest of soaring food costs
Protesters hit out at soaring supermarket prices and food insecurity at a protest in Glasgow on Sunday morning.
This Is Rigged campaigners marched from Garnethill Park to Sauchiehall Street donning banners and flags, before staging a five minute sit-in in Tesco and rallying outside Sainsbury’s on Buchanan Street.
This Is Rigged is calling on the Scottish Government to take action against rising food prices by rolling out community food hubs. They demand that these hubs are not means-tested and that there is one per every 500 households in Scotland, ensuring that everyone has access to food.
They are also demanding that supermarkets slash the cost of baby formula which has increased by 24% since 2021.
A spokesperson from This is Rigged said: “Supermarkets continue to exploit our rights and fail to provide accessible, nutritious food at fair prices even as they publish record profits.
“Why should ordinary people, already struggling to make ends meet in a cost of living crisis, be guilt-tripped into further financial hardship each time they shop for basic necessities?”
Callum Malcolm, 21, student and activist from Kingussie, said: “The cost of living crisis is affecting us all and supermarkets and preying on that. It’s so important that we collectively use our power to stop the profiteering from supermarkets.”
Another campaigner, Lennox, 23, said: “I refuse to let people off the hook while they rinse people in the name of ‘profit’. There is no material reason for the cost of living crisis, only greed.
“Food is a human right and the Scottish Government needs to step up.”
More than one million Scots have experienced food insecurity in the past year, according to The Trussell Trust. Disabled people, working-age adults, and families with children are most likely to experience food insecurity and seek support from food banks.
Food banks in Scotland have reported feeling the pressure “more than ever” to provide food, toiletries and baby products for those in need.
Lesley Davidson, chair of the Loaves and Fishes food bank in East Kilbride, said: “There has been a gradual increase in people using our service since the pandemic. We currently provide 150 food parcels a week which feeds around 500-600 people.
“The biggest change now is the demographic of those who use us – veterans, pensioners, nurses, people in employment, people in low income but dual-income households, as well as those who have been cruelly sanctioned with benefits while doing nothing wrong.
“The punishing and prohibitive pricing of baby formula is something I feel especially strong about. Items like formula, nappies, toiletries, cleaning products and pet food have never been more expensive or so desperately needed than they are now.”
However, Ms Davidson believes that it is “too simplistic” to expect the Scottish Government to single-handedly tackle food insecurity amid the cost of living crisis, saying: “Years of Tory Westminster governance have a far greater impact on the life people are forced to live today.”
