Food banks in the US have problems due to more demand from families battered by COVID-19

Banks of food on USA Already dealing with the increase in demand from families battered by the pandemic, they now face a new obstacle: the rise in food prices and problems in the supply chain in the country.

High costs and limited availability mean that some families may receive smaller rations or substitutions for supplies like peanut butter, which cost almost double what it cost last year. As the holiday season approaches, some food banks fear they won’t have enough ingredients for family dinners.

“What happens when food prices go up is that food insecurity worsens for those who suffer from it,” said Katie Fitzgerald, Chief Operating Officer for Feeding America, a nonprofit organization that coordinates the efforts of more than 200 food banks. in the country.

Food banks that expanded to meet the unprecedented demand caused by the pandemic will never be able to absorb food costs, which are double or triple what they used to be, he said.

Supply chain problems, shrinking inventories and a shortage of workers have contributed to rising costs for the charities that tens of millions of people in the United States depend on for food.

It is more expensive now to move the donated food because transportation costs are higher and the obstacles in factories and ports make it difficult to obtain products.

If a food bank has to opt for smaller tuna cans or make substitutions to maximize its funds, Fitzgerald said, it’s like “putting salt on the wound” for a family suffering from uncertainty.

In the expensive San Francisco Bay area, the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Oakland is spending an additional $ 60,000 a month on food. Combined with increased demand, $ 1 million a month is now being spent to distribute 2 million kilograms (4.5 million pounds) of food, said Michael Altfest, the bank’s director for community relations.

Before the pandemic, a quarter of the money was being spent for 1.2 million kilograms (2.5 million pounds) of food.

The cost of canned beans and peaches is up 9%, Altfest said. Canned tuna and frozen tilapia are up more than 6% and a 5-pound box of frozen chicken is up 13%. The price of dry oats has risen 17%.

On Wednesdays, hundreds of people line up outside a church in East Oakland for their weekly supplies of free food. Shiloh Mercy House feeds about 300 families on those days, far fewer than the 1,100 families it nurtured at the peak of the pandemic, said Jason Bautista, event organizer for the organization. But keep seeing new people every week.

“And a lot of people just say they can’t buy food. They have money to buy certain things, but it is not enough, “he said.

Families can also use a community market opened by Shiloh in May. Refrigerators hold milk and eggs, while shelves hold hamburger buns and baguettes.

Oakland resident Sonia Lujan-Perez, 45, recently picked up chicken, celery, onions, bread and potatoes – enough for a Thanksgiving dinner for herself, her three-year-old daughter, and her 18-year-old son. California pays her to care for her daughter Melanie, who has special needs, but a $ 2,200 monthly rent and high costs for milk, citrus, spinach and chicken are not enough.

“That (the market) is wonderful for me, because I am going to save a lot of money,” he said, adding that the holiday season is difficult, with Christmas toys for children.

It is unclear to what extent other government assistance, including expanding California’s school lunch program and increasing benefits for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients, will offset rising food prices.

An analysis by the Urban Institute think tank in Washington found that, although most households are expected to receive sufficient maximum benefits for provisions, there is still a 21% gap between urban and rural counties in the country.

Bryan Nichols, vice president of sales for Transnational Foods Inc., which supplies more than 100 food banks associated with Feeding America, said canned foods from Asia – such as fruit cocktails, peaches and tangerines – have been stranded on the foreigner due to lack of space on cargo ships.

Problems in the supply chain appear to be abating and prices are stabilizing, but Nichols expects costs to remain high after so many people went out of the shipping business during the pandemic.

“An average container from Asia before COVID cost around US $ 4,000. Today the same container costs about $ 18,000, ″ he said.

At the Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado in Colorado Springs, Director Lynne Telford says the cost of a truckload of peanut butter is up 19% from a year ago and the wholesale cost of ground beef is up 5%. in three months. The bank is spending more money to buy food to make up for the drop in donations and there is less to choose from.

The holiday season worries him. For starters, the donation cost to buy a frozen turkey has increased from $ 10 to $ 15.

“The other thing is that we are not getting enough Christmas food, like stuffing and cranberry sauce. So we are having to supplement it with other types of food, which makes us sad, ”said Telford, whose bank fed more than 200,000 people last year, distributing 11.3 million kilos (25 million pounds) of food.

The Alameda County Community Food Bank says it is ready for Thanksgiving, with boxes of canned cranberries and packets of mashed potatoes in stock. Resource Director Wilken Louie placed an order for eight trucks of frozen chicken – equivalent to more than 60,000 birds – to hand out for free, plus turkey available at cost.

For that, Martha Hasal is grateful. “It’s going to be an expensive Thanksgiving, the turkey isn’t going to cost what it used to,” Hasal said as he stocked up on cauliflower and onions for the Bay Area American Indian Council. “And they are not giving away the turkey. So thank God they give the chicken away ”.