Swiss soup kitchens face sharp uptick in demand

Soup kitchens provide hearty meals at discount prices. SRF-SWI

Restaurants for the needy have seen numbers climb sharply in 2023 as rising prices push more people into financial difficulty.

In St Gallen’s soup kitchen, servings start at midday. Today’s menu: spaghetti bolognese and side salad. Volunteers have prepared 60 meals, many more than this time last year.

“We’re bursting at the seams,” says Regine Rust, the director of the St Gallen addiction aid foundation, which operates the restaurant.

Until spring 2023 the establishment provided 30 meals per day. Since then the figure has doubled. “At first we thought it was because of the cold and wet weather in March and April,” Rust says. But in summer, the demand didn’t subside.

Creeping poverty

Rust says the reasons are clear: people have less money as health insurance costs, energy bills and grocery prices have sharply risen in Switzerland. Many are dependent on charity offerings like soup kitchens. “Here, the creeping poverty becomes visible,” Rust says.

The guests are varied: some have jobs but little money, some are social welfare recipients, others have addiction problems.

A young man says that he often lacks money at the end of the month to buy groceries. “Since I live from social assistance, I feel the rising prices acutely,” he says.

Inflation in charity shops

Shops operated by the Caritas organisation have also noted more clients this year, after last year also saw a strong increase.

Groceries have to some extent become more expensive, says Philipp Holderegger from Caritas. “Even in Caritas shops, the cost of penne pasta has gone up by 40%,” he says.

Poor people are much more affected by this, since they more often rely on basic food sources, Holderegger says. “You can clearly sense that the lower middle class is being pushed financially downwards.”

Over 80 meals a day

In the St Gallen soup kitchen the spaghetti has already run out by 1pm. Workers start cooking again, since after 3pm more meals will also have to be ready. In total over 80 meals will be served throughout the day, many more than expected.

The current plan is to renovate the kitchen, Regine Rust says. However, the means to do this are limited, as the establishment is financed solely via donations. But the goal remains clear: however many guests show up, nobody should be turned away hungry.

Translated from German by Domhnall O’Sullivan