Rising food prices are driving more people in Singapore, the wealthiest economy in Southeast Asia, to join the queue for free meals, charities said Monday.
Thirty percent more people are turning up daily to fill their stomachs at the Singapore Buddhist Lodge, which serves free vegetarian meals, the temple's president Lee Bock Guan said.
During weekends the figures are even higher, when about 5,000 people arrive for the free food compared to 3,000 three months ago, he told AFP.
"Food prices have gone up and for them, their wages have not gone up as much," he said, adding the needy are coming from all walks of life.
"Their income is not enough to cope with the higher food prices."
Lee said donations from some of the temple's wealthiest members are still strong, allowing it to handle the rising demand.
The Care Corner Seniors Activity Centre, which serves free breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, said inflation has led 10 percent more elderly citizens to turn up for meals, compared with two months ago.
Some of them have started to take more food at lunch and bring the extra home for their dinner, said a centre worker who declined to be named.
The Young Women's Christian Association, which cooks meals and delivers them to the needy, said it is operating at peak capacity serving 200 people each day -- despite a drop in rice donations.
"One of the possible reasons could be the increasing price of rice," programme executive Han Shin Hui said, adding donations of other food items such as biscuits have increased.
She said the organisation has had to use its own funds to cover the drop in rice donations.
Singapore is an island state that imports virtually all its food needs.
Consumer price index inflation reached 6.6 percent in January-February, up from 0.8 percent in the first half of last year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said last week.
MAS announced it had tightened monetary policy in a bid to address the price rises.
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