Food charities struggle to fill needs
Victor Munoz had dreams of sailing when he retired five years ago.
Then came health problems, rising inflation and a round of surgeries for his heart and knee that took much of the $1,800 he receives in monthly Social Security checks, forcing him to turn to charity to stay fed.
“By the time I get the next check, the last one is gone,” the 70-year-old retired refinery worker said. “It's a lot of money. Things are tight.”
Like thousands of other Texans, Munoz, of Houston, has come to rely on charities for basic necessities as inflation continues to eat at household budgets, further straining a nonprofit sector beset by labor shortages, stagnant funding, fewer volunteers, and supply chain issues that have driven up both the cost and the unpredictability of their food supply.
Now, with some federal pandemicera funding set to expire this year, many nonprofits say they're worried they won't be able to keep up with growing food insecurity that has hit all parts of Southeast Texas.
At Meals on Wheels, the Houston nonprofit that delivers food to homebound seniors including Munoz, demand for food deliveries has jumped 25 percent over the past year, said Maria Magee, the nonprofit's chief development officer. Much of the new demand is concentrated in Galveston County, where drives to deliver food are longer and costlier because of high fuel prices.
Operational costs, meanwhile, have jumped by about 30 percent over the year, Magee said, adding roughly $10,000 in additional weekly costs at the same time that the nonprofit faces a shortage of volunteers, many of whom are seniors on fixed incomes who can't afford the gasoline.
“That's proven to be a challenge,” Magee said of the one-two punch of rising costs and less food. “When you think about Meals on Wheels, the two main components are the meals — the food — and the wheels — the gasoline — and both of those items have significantly increased due to inflation.”
The need has, too. Eva Flores, 93, depended on her daughter until she died a few months ago. Now, she counts on her Meals on Wheels driver to bring food to her Fifth Ward home.
While she's grateful to those who have helped her, including her son and local charities, she said it's been particularly difficult since the loss of her daughter — with rising costs of living only making it more difficult.
“It's just been really hard,” she said.
Sustained crisis
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 38 million people, including 12 million children, in the United States are food insecure — meaning they have limited or uncertain access to adequate food. And research shows that in times of financial hardship, food is often the first thing families cut back on to buoy shoestring budgets.
Nonprofits in the area have seen 40 to 50 percent increases in housingrelated assistance requests since June, and say many clients are still choosing between paying for food or utility bills to keep their electricity on.
Food prices, meanwhile, are rising faster than overall inflation, which is running the hottest in 40 years. In July, grocery costs nationally jumped 13 percent from a year earlier, compared with 8.5 percent for all items, according to the Labor Department. Only energy costs rose faster.
In Houston, according to the most recent local data released for June, grocery prices also rose 13 percent.
Many of the pandemic-era programs that have helped sustain lowincome families over the past two years have expired or soon will expire. Poverty researchers at the Urban Institute and elsewhere have pleaded — unsuccessfully — for some of the relief funding to be extended, citing the millions of children who were pulled, if temporarily, from poverty through tax credits and other federal programs.
Congress declined to extend most of the programs. The result has been a sustained food crisis as higher rents and utility costs continue to strain many household budgets.
More and less
In July alone, the Houston Food Bank saw 87,000 people needing food assistance — a nearly 20 percent jump from a year prior and the latest example of an uneven economic recovery that has left the poorest Americans in dire straits.
“We don't even really begin to fit the need anyways, but certainly it is harder now with less food surplus and funds that don't go as far,” said Amy Ragan, chief development office of the Houston Food Bank. “It's just a sign of the times.”
At the Montgomery County Food Bank, the number of clients seeking food assistance jumped by nearly 36 percent between January and June of this year, as food and energy prices spiked after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Last month, the Food Bank served more than 70,000 food-insecure Texans — more than double what it did in July 2021.
“This dilemma is happening at the same time that we've had a reduction in food, and we're having to purchase more and do more with less,” said Kristine Marlow, president of the Montgomery County Food Bank. “That's almost a perfect storm.”