At this time Britain was bankrupt and without enough reserves to import adequate food and manufactures. The next few years will be hard.
Thanks for the trivia about C.S. Lewis. It's really nice that his friends appreciated the situation in Britain and sent him "care" packages. (Do they even make Care packages anymore?)
I should add that Lewis did his best to distribute the Care packages once received. He was very benevolent; indeed, he practiced personally what he preached, which was (paraphrasing) if you’re not giving enough to the needy to jeopardize your own financial position, you’re not being obedient.