As the calendar winter draws to a close following two months of bitter frost and sharply higher heating bills, more people are queuing for food aid across Lithuania. Their stories reveal a quiet crisis: some have been warming themselves only at work or school, others cannot afford winter clothing, and this year, when wells froze solid, some families melted snow for water.
Experts agree that the hardest hit are the elderly, single parents, and those caring for a disabled family member.
Simonas Gurevičius, director of the Lithuanian Food Bank, says the organisation provides food assistance to 232,000 people across the country. According to him, demand surged this winter after January's heating bills arrived – driven both by the prolonged cold snap and an increase in VAT.
"People face an enormous challenge because their income and their outgoings are very close to each other. They ask whether they can come for food more often, or collect it earlier. They want to be sure they will have enough to eat and still be able to pay their bills," Gurevičius said.
'Heating is no longer about comfort – it's about survival'
Ingrida Radzevičė, director of the Caritas social centre Betanija, has also noticed a rise in visitors this winter.
"We had a harsh winter. People were arriving from early in the morning to warm up, drink hot tea and simply be somewhere safe. Many of our visitors live in accommodation that is wholly unsuitable, or have no secure housing at all, so in extreme conditions, some are left sleeping on the street," she said.
A large share of Betanija's visitors are homeless people living in shelters or on the streets. "They are unwanted in most places – regularly turned away from shopping centres, bus and train stations. Society does not want to see them. They come to us simply to stay warm," Radzevičė said.
But the centre also serves low-income residents and the elderly, for whom winter brings a particular kind of dread. From as early as November, she says, visitors begin to arrive anxious about heating bills they have not yet received.
"The elderly are especially vulnerable. Heating is no longer a matter of comfort – it is a matter of survival. Knowing that the winter will be cold, people have to think not only about how to pay the heating bill, but also whether there will be enough left for food and medicine. That is why they come here – to eat, to wash, to spend part of their day somewhere warm, so that at home they can use less water and turn the heating down."
Those who spend part of their day at Betanija are, in effect, subsidising their own survival. "By being here, they save a little and manage to get by."
Saving for months to afford a theatre ticket
Gurevičius identifies the most financially precarious groups during winter: elderly people living alone, single parents and those with disabled family members.
The director of Lithuania’s Food Bank also notes that winter brings a rise in house fires, as more people heat their homes with firewood – and the Food Bank steps in to help those affected. More broadly, he is keen to stress that food aid is far from the exclusive preserve of the unemployed.
"Support is needed most by people who are not poor by choice. Society labels them – implying they are simply not trying hard enough. But in reality, very few people are deliberately avoiding work," he stressed.
Gurevičius points out that some people work multiple jobs and still cannot cover their bills and put food on the table. One case has stayed with him: a former actress came to the Food Bank asking for extra food parcels – so that over the course of a few months she might save enough to buy herself a ticket to the theatre.
"It is vital that society stops assuming that everyone receiving food aid is an unemployed person who chose not to work. The majority of recipients are elderly people who cannot find employment, single working parents, and people with disabled family members," he said.
No winter clothes, no running water
Aistė Adomavičienė, director of the National Network of Poverty Reduction Organisations, highlighted the particular plight of those renting in the shadow economy – where landlords refuse to register tenancy agreements, leaving tenants ineligible for housing or heating subsidies.
"We have been talking about the shadow rental market for a long time, but this winter has hit those people especially hard," she said. Many such tenants are families with children or single parents, making an already difficult situation worse.
Beyond bills, the cold has exposed more basic deprivations. Some adults and children simply do not have warm enough clothing. "For some people, even a few euros for a garment is difficult when you are trying to balance a very small family budget," Adomavičienė said.
Those living in old wooden houses face an additional problem: the buildings lose heat quickly. "If you heat the house in the evening, by the early hours it is already very cold. People go to work and children go to school and after-school clubs just to get warm, because staying at home in winter is not bearable," Adomavičienė explained.
During the weeks of severe frost, water supplies failed in some rural areas and wells froze over. Some households were reduced to melting snow. Many still lack a sewage system entirely, with outdoor toilets their only option.
"Imagine having to go to an outdoor toilet in -30 degrees. It is genuinely harmful to health," she said.
Adomavičienė also noted that employment is no guarantee of security. Around 8% of working people in Lithuania still face poverty risk. Without social transfers such as child benefit, that figure would rise to 13%.
"People should be able to live on their wages without facing poverty. For many families, winter makes that impossible," she said.
Life on the streets in sub-zero temperatures
Radzevičė reserved her most sombre words for those sleeping on the streets. For them, this winter has not merely been uncomfortable – it has been life-threatening.
"Living in those conditions is a direct threat to life. Going out in such cold is not safe. Some choose shelters, but many find the conditions unacceptable – sobriety is required to access a safe, warm bed. There are those who choose to sleep in abandoned buildings. On the coldest days, we had cases of people living under balconies. The conditions are dangerous," she said.
Some, in desperation, turned to alcohol as a means of keeping warm – a choice Radzevičė describes as a direct risk rather than any form of protection.
"People do not stop to think that this can lead to frostbite, the loss of limbs, or in the worst case, death," she said.
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