It was Alex Salmond who claimed that an independent Scotland would become so wealthy that there would be no need for food banks. At the largest soup kitchen in Oslo, the claim was met with incredulity.
The size of the country’s oil fund means that every Norwegian is, on paper at least, a millionaire. Yet at the Evangelical Centre just north of Oslo’s main railway station, hundreds queue for a hot meal.
“You will always have some people who are falling out of the system, maybe because there is some trouble in their life, maybe a drug or family situation,” said Gjermund Stormoen, director of the Matsentralen food bank which distributes to 70 outlets in Oslo.
In Stavanger, the oil capital of Norway, the Salvation Army is active.
“In places of lots of success, like Stavanger, then poor people feel even more miserable,” Mr Stormoen said.
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Europe: In or Out? by David Charter is published by Biteback