Food and gas price hikes hit rural, poor hardest

Paralegal Peggy Trump fills up her tank in Charleston, W.Va., before heading home to Beckley, the beginning and end of her five-day-a-week round trip. She says Charleston law firms offer better pay and benefits, but increases in fuel and food prices are squeezing her pocketbook and those of all Americans, especially those who commute from rural areas. The topic is getting more coverage, and it should. (Charleston Gazette photo by Chris Dorst)

"When the economy takes a tumble, the poor are often the first to feel the pain," Karla Ward writes for the Herald-Leader in Lexington, Ky. "Representatives of several local social service agencies said they're seeing more clients seeking help in an environment in which gas and grocery prices are soaring." Problems resulting from increases in food and gas prices are compounded in rural areas. "The rural areas are going to suffer more in the current environment," said James Siliak, director of the University of Kentucky's Center for Poverty Research. "He said people in rural areas have to commute farther to work, which means they have higher fuel costs, and there is some evidence suggesting that groceries cost more in rural areas as well," Ward writes.

West Virginia may be the state where rural commuters burn up the most time, relatively speaking. It ranked 11th in average commuting time in 2006, led entirely by states with large metropolitan areas, and 13th in "the percentage of workers who work outside their county of residence, according to the 2006 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau," Allison Knezevich writes for the Gazette. In "a largely rural state, mass transit isn't available to most people." (Read more)

Increasing fuel costs also affect health care, especially those who are homebound or disabled. "Rural residents are often hit the hardest," writes Clare Ansberry for The Wall Street Journal. "Doctors, dentists and grocery stores may be miles away and there is often little, if any, public transportation. Agencies such as Easter Seals provide rides for those with disabilities, but with high gasoline costs, such serviced are often limited largely to medical appointments." Dozens homebound individuals in rural Minnesota were sent letters informing them their local Meals on Wheels program is closing at the end of the month.

Higher food and fuel costs are effecting food distribution to the nation's less fortunate too. The Mississippi Food Network and similar organizations "are finding it increasingly difficult to provide food to the poor," Becky Gillette reports for The Mississippi Business Journal.

"While food banks across the country are facing a strain of increased demand at a time of inflation for purchasing and distributing food, the need can be particular acute in areas where there is a low per capita income." According to information recently released by the USDA, a family of four paid $197 on average per week for groceries, compared to $211 per week in February 2008. The USDA considers it the worst food inflation in 20 years.

The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma provides food for nearly 64,000 hungry Oklahomans every week and since their beginning in 1980 has distributed over 283 million pounds of food to nearly 500 charitable programs in central and western Oklahoma. Growing needs in rural communities has led to an increase in distributions in additional areas increasing food and transportation costs," Amy Klinge writes for The Oklahoman. The agency recently received a grant from the Communities Foundation of Oklahoma to help offset costs associated with servicing these outlying areas.