Food inflation Valley entities, pantries, food banks step in to help

Local food banks and pantries are seeing large increases in the number of people who need food, due to food price inflation, and the CEO of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank doesn’t see prices easing anytime soon.

In 2022 compared with 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, prices for the aggregate category of fruits and vegetables are now predicted to increase between 7 and 8 percent, processed fruits and vegetables prices between 9.5 and 10.5 percent, sugar and sweets prices between 8.5 and 9.5 percent, nonalcoholic beverage prices between 8.5 and 9.5 percent, and other foods prices between 12.5 and 13.5 percent.

“We collect data from our partners (local food banks), and what we have seen in July and August of this year is an increase of 35 percent versus this time last year, in terms of the amount of pounds of food that we are providing to food pantries,” Joe Arthur, CEO, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank said. “That’s not the only measure. Actually, since January 2022, we’ve been seeing a pretty steady increase in the number of people being served food. Just a steady increase that aligns with the erosion of household budgets.”

So the overall inflation factor is real, he said.

“Taken in a broad perspective, the economy looks strong, but at the individual household level there are other factors, such as rising rents, high gas prices and utilities that make it hard for people’s income to keep up with inflation,” Arthur said.

This increase in the need for food is basically the trend in food pantries in all of the 27 counties served by the Central Pa. Food Bank, he said.

“We at the food bank feel like this situation will continue for some time,” Arthur said. “In our minds, this really is a continuation of the household budget crisis that began with COVID.

Donors to the Central Food Bank have responded to the increased needs, Arthur said. “They have been extraordinarily generous.”

Arthur said they were prepared for this, and he told donors that “this would be a long crisis. So we never really let up on raising funds. We called it our crisis fund. We built it and have been using it ever since to defray our increasing expenses, which have increased as well.”

Arthur has been telling donors that “this is not over. For some people, the COVID crisis appears over, but it is really not for families that are struggling.

“It is a continuation or another phase of the crisis,” Arthur said. “We’re saying to our donors, ‘stay with us. We are dealing with this crisis because we think it’s gonna be in place for a while.’ We are asking for continued support.

“We’re all shoppers as individuals, and the cost of food is affecting everyone, no matter how much their income, it’s eating into it. The high prices are sticking, not coming down. It’s on everybody’s mind.”

In all, he said, “we do have a burgeoning crisis and it is seen in food insecurity.”

The food bank is trying to help.

Established in 2008, September is Hunger Action Month, the Feeding America nationwide awareness campaign designed to mobilize the public to act on the issue of hunger.

A major Valley partner of the Central Pa. Food Bank is the Montour County Food Bank, administrated by Greg Molter since 2013.

Molter said it may be surprising, but during the pandemic, Montour County’s distribution numbers dropped from around 120 families to 70-75.

This may have been due to so many food banks coming on board, or the fear of contact with the COVID, or maybe it had something to do with the stimulus checks, Molter said.

“Some folks just didn’t want to take what they saw as a ‘handout,’” he said. “Our decreased numbers may also have been affected by the relocation from Woodbine Lane to our new location on Front Street in Danville.”

From early 2020 through the end of 2021, the Montour Food Bank served approximately 70-79 families each month.

“Since 2021, our number of families served has started a gradual increase,” Molter said. “Presently we are serving 103 families each month and we are providing emergency food to individuals as we are made aware of a need. We work with all Montour County-based Human Services agencies, veterans groups, the school district, and Geisinger for referrals into our food distribution service.”

The Montour County pantry is set up for a once-a-month distribution (normally the last Thursday of the month), from 9 a.m. to noon. Individuals can pre-register through the office or register in the pantry the day of the event. For most, it is a self-pickup system, but arrangements for delivery can be made for those who are shut-in. We do our best to ensure no one we know of goes without food. Among other local partners of the Central Food Bank is the United Pentecostal Church in Lewisburg.

Director Christy Zeigler runs a food pantry out of Sunbury’s Haven Ministry, a homeless shelter.

Because of the high price of food, Zeigler said, “I’m seeing double the number of people who come to us for food at the pantry. It went down during COVID and now it is back up to where it was before, plus some.”

The Haven Ministry food pantry exists totally on donations, Zeigler said.

“We don’t get funding and we don’t go to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank,” she said.

Zeigler said her donors have been more generous lately. “What happens is now that we need something, I’ll post it on Facebook and the response is overwhelming.”

As an example, right after school ended this year, she put on her personal Facebook page what she needed: juices and snacks for kids for the summer. The response filled a third of her office.

About a month or so ago “I put on some specific items that we needed,” she recalled. “Ravioli, canned pasta. Rice-a-roni. The heat-me-at-lunch-type things. The response was amazing. We also needed ground beef.”

Lou Vangilder, of Northumberland Borough, helps out with food distribution at Saint John’s Lutheran Church in Northumberland.

“We buy our food, and because we do so, we’re experiencing the same situation as individual shoppers,” he said. “Our prices have gone up, but we still have some money in the bank and we are still able to buy food, but things, potentially, could get a little tough for us to buy food to hand out to folks that can’t afford to buy food."

The money the church spends is mostly from grants that Vangilder writes. “Some money is donated I should say, but the majority of it comes from grants that I write to buy food,” he said.

Grants are becoming very hard to find right now, Vangilder said.

The needs of the people who come to Saint John’s has doubled over last year, Vangilder said.