Reijo Miettinen, 62, never had to worry about going hungry until global food prices soared and he had to join a growing number of Finns forced to turn to charity to fill their bellies.

Miettinen, a pensioner with thinning grey hair, eagerly shows off the day's catch: bread, ham, milk and a couple of ready-made meals -- all for free courtesy of a group called Veikko and Lahja Hursti's Acts of Charity.

"After I pay my rent and buy a monthly bus pass, I don't have much money left. That's why I come here," he told AFP as the food queue behind him circled around the yard before disappearing around a corner.

Miettinen is not alone in complaining that sky-rocketing food prices have made it difficult in recent months to make ends meet.

According to the World Bank, 33 countries around the world face political and social disturbances due to rising food and energy prices.

Few would have expected Finland, one of the world's wealthiest nations, to feel the pinch.

But the Nordic country, which has long aimed to smooth out all class difference in its generous welfare state, has experienced growing income disparity in recent years, leaving the poor trailing ever further behind.

At a time when the rich have never been richer, charities report that in the space of just one month, from March to April this year, the number of people queuing for food and other assistance had doubled.