Officials: Inflated food costs draw more people to food pantries
Some Salvation Army food pantries are seeing two to three times the number of clients they were prior to the pandemic.
Sterling House Community Center enrolled 10 more children in its food provision program at the Stratford School District the week before Thanksgiving.
Operation Hope in Fairfield has seen more than a 10 percent increase in people coming through the food pantry over recent weeks.
“We are experiencing a higher volume of people using the food pantry, and we believe there's a direct correlation between that and the rising prices of food. I also believe that many people were relying on the money they were receiving from the government and are no longer receiving and are surprised to see how expensive food is right now,” said Carla Miklos, executive director of Operation Hope.
“They weren’t really prepared for the rising food prices and the loss of income.”
With food prices rising, supply chain delays causing shortages of certain products and heightened need continuing through the pandemic, food pantries in Connecticut are feeling the effects of inflation.
In Connecticut, about 1 in 8 people or 428,800 people face hunger. Of that number, nearly 109,500 are children, according to data from Feeding America.
The number of people facing hunger is a little more than the sum total of the populations of Bridgeport, Hartford, Stamford and Guilford.
Not only is the increased price of food pushing patrons to pantries, the heightened prices mean it’s more expensive to buy food to give out. Some service providers are also concerned that the cost might mean fewer people buy food to donate.
“We’re just seeing a lot of rising costs in different areas,” said Maj. Debra Ashcraft, a divisional commander for the Salvation Army’s Southern New England Division. “So even the families who were making ends meet are having trouble.”
Some of the difficulties also stem from the loss of additional unemployment benefits, which the government implemented to alleviate financial stress from the COVID-19 pandemic, Miklos said.
Those benefits ended in September.
And some of the increases are likely seasonal — during the winter, more people tend to need help because of the financial stress of the holidays in addition to funding heating costs, said Steve Werlin, executive director of the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen in New Haven.
The end of the month as SNAP benefits and paychecks are dwindling also tends to draw more people into soup kitchens and food pantries, Werlin said.
“In the winter, you know everyone’s household budget is crunched because of heating costs and also seasonal work tends to go down,” he added.
At the Salvation Army, staff members are seeing clients who have never come in before and have hit hard times as a result of the pandemic,
Ashcraft said.
The same is true at Sterling House, executive director Amanda Meeson said.
“I think what has changed is all types of people are in these pantry lines,” Meeson said. “You’ll have people driving in, in a very nice car that they had pre-pandemic, and life has completely changed for them.”
The Salvation Army pantries have also had more older adult clients lately, Ashcraft added.
She thinks that’s likely because their fixed incomes don’t allow much room for inflation, especially with grocery products that people need to purchase often.
Inflation is up across the board — the consumer price index, which measures economy-wide price fluctuations, increased by just under 1 percent from September to October. And the index for food increased by 1 percent.
Food prices were up by just over 5 percent compared to October 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
This looks different for various products. The cost
of beef, for example, is up by about 20 percent compared to last year. Other products have seen less dramatic rises.
In addition to the influx of clients to help, food pantries are also feeling the strain of increased grocery costs even though much of their product comes from the Connecticut Food Share or through donations.
At Operation Hope, as at other pantries, workers are seeking as many bargains as they can find, Miklos said.
And at the Salvation Army, more of that strain is apparent at shelters and soup kitchens where more purchasing is needed to put together a prepared meal, Ashcraft said.
“The best way to help with the soup kitchen programs and the shelter programs would be a monetary contribution because you have to buy in bulk,” she said.
Other donations the Salvation Army often needs include canned meats and peanut butter — goods with high protein content, she said.
Service providers also highlighted an increased focus on health and nutrition at pantries.
Meeson said Sterling House is seeking more donations of fresh foods in addition to food that can go toward the Food-4-Kids program.
The program sends backpacks with easy-to-make meals and snacks home with kids in the Stratford School District.
“That’s a tricky one because you have to purchase foods that they can make themselves,” Meeson said. “So a pop top or mac and cheese.”
Supply chain issues have made it increasingly difficult to get certain foods for that program, Meeson added.
Other shelters said they’re having problems getting particular items as well.
“We are seeing sort of a secondary result from not getting quite as much from some of the retailers and certainly the Connecticut food share is having more difficulty getting variety because of the supply chain issues and some of the increases in prices,” Werlin said.
The Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen typically needs items that people experiencing homelessness can carry with them, Werlin said.
The service providers said that while the holidays are a big time of year for donations, they also need donations during the rest of the year.
“What we always like to remind people is hunger is 365 days a year, homelessness is 365 days a year, and we are here all year long,” Werlin said.