Rising prices and poverty: »I eat what the children leave«

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Food distribution in the Arche, a children and youth center in Berlin-Hellersdorf.

Here children and families get a free meal.

Those with little money are hit hardest by inflation and rising prices.

Just like the single mother Monique Ruck.

OT Monique Ruck, single mother

It's the case that I'm doing without even more, that I really only eat what the children haven't eaten.

Or that, as we all know, that you have a craving for certain types of ice cream - I don't have that anymore either.

And I already buy things on sale.

So when toast bread is on sale, I buy five packs and freeze them so that I can somehow make ends meet.

People like the 33-year-old are now hoping that the federal government will intervene and cap the prices for electricity and gas.

Otherwise things could literally get dark at Monique Ruck's home.

OT Monique Ruck, single mother

The current - I'm still at 100 €.

But I made a comparison, I would now pay twice as much, so 220 or so.

I'm really scared of that.

I am happy until February that I really have my peace and I hope that the cap will come by then.

OT Wolfgang Büscher, Arche spokesman

If I have little, then of course a price increase is even worse.

We have countless requests from mothers and from some fathers: I need help, I need food packages.

I can't handle the food.

In other words, our children are living in an incredibly difficult phase at the moment.

If the costs continue to rise, families who have been able to manage on their own up to now will soon have to take advantage of the Arche's offer.

Without additional help from the state, the number of people in need is likely to increase significantly in the coming winter.