Inflation makes it harder for food banks to meet rising need

Robert Walton loads food from the Foodbank of Southeastern
Virginia and the Eastern Shore. (NPR photo by Eze Amos)

Food has been hit with some of the highest inflation in  year40s, driving many Americans to food banks this year. But that same inflation has made it harder for food banks to stock enough food to meet their needs, especially higher-cost items like meat, Jennifer Ludden reports for NPR."Inflation is hitting both food banks and their clients in other ways: cost increases for fuel, for example, increase the cost of living in numerous ways for lower-income households that can ill afford extra expenses," Ludden reports. "Food is one of the items worst hit by the highest inflation in four decades. And the cost of food and other essentials, such as gas and rent, fall hardest on lower-income households" who are the main users of food banks.

An Urban Institute survey in December, before the food-price spike, "found that one in six adults relied on charitable food, a share that was still above pre-pandemic levels," Ludden writes. "It found Black and Hispanic adults were nearly three times as likely as white adults to use food pantries, with no significant decline since the first year of the pandemic."