Posted on 05/03/2022 2:20:08 PM PDT by blam
The highest inflation prints in four decades have forced some Americans to flood food banks and pantries (again).
WSJ reports that Forgotten Harvest in Detroit has experienced a dramatic increase in demand. Since December, demand at the food bank has increased from 25% to 45%. In March alone, when energy and food prices soared, demand jumped 30% over the prior month.
Christopher Ivey, a spokesman for the Detroit food bank, said, “the need is growing quickly, as gas prices are continuing to rise.”
“As you know, there are shortages in the grocery store and the costs of the commodity goods are going up and up and up, Ivey said, adding this is putting pressure on the food bank.
The hunger crisis is countrywide. With a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, Feeding America published new data that found demand for its food assistance in February increased in nearly every food bank (85%). That was a 20% increase versus January’s numbers.
Allison Korn, the director of the Food Law & Policy Clinic at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the virus pandemic sparked food insecurity, and today’s inflation environment has made things worse.
“You will continue to see folks come into food banks who are seniors, who are undocumented individuals, and persons who suffer from disabilities … But you’re also seeing folks who are just kind of trying to cobble together jobs who may suffer from chronic and persistent unemployment,” Korn said.
Working-poor households have been battered by inflation at a four-decade high. The price of food in March was 10% versus the same month last year. Inflation has outpaced wage growth, sending real wages negative. Also, the personal savings rate has collapsed to its lowest level since December 2014, an ominous sign the consumer is stressed.
Higher food bank demand has put pressure on this organization’s supply chains because of increased food costs, rising freight costs, and food availability.
“We have had to work harder to secure the food needed to support the community,” Tim Fetsch, the St. Louis Area Foodbank chief operating officer, told WSJ.
Fetsch warned that today’s inflationary environment and supply chain disruptions had reduced the amount of food donated.
Feeding America’s CEO Katie Fitzgerald said food banks in the organization’s network had increased food purchases by 60%. She outlined costs have increased by 40%.
What’s important to understand is that lower-income households are unraveling as consumer prices are at historically high levels. It’s a sign that some households are at breaking points amid threats of stagflation.
Not a problem in Oregon. They have so much money they tell you right in their fund raising letters that your money will go to fund political action.
Today, they can't hand out a box of saltiness.
Circle back to me when you figure out what's changed?
Can’t afford groceries because gas is too high? Buy a $60,000 electric vehicle!
I periodically volunteer at a local food bank. It is totally volunteer and staffed by people in their 70’s or 80’s.
I end up loading boxes in peoples car because of my “youth.”
Recently I loaded groceries in the back of a 2022 Tesla. I know it was a 2022 because it still had the paper plate on the back.
I’ll let the Lord do the judging.
It’s a dystopian nightmare that we even have “working poor” in this country, feels like the 1800s
.
I certainly do.
“Feeding America’s CEO Katie Fitzgerald said food banks in the organization’s network had increased food purchases by 60%. She outlined costs have increased by 40%.”
Demand remains constant.
Detroit huh? Remember how y’all stole that election? How’s that working out for ya?
I seem to recall from my high school economics course that inflation can be caused by printing too much money and/or too much government spending (though the 2 often go hand in hand). Want to bet that textbook’s gone down the memory hole by now?
Good teacher! Inflation is caused by too much money, rising prices can be caused by too much government spending. Together, they are called “inflation.”
Good teacher! Inflation is caused by too much money, rising prices can be caused by too much government spending. Together, they are called “inflation.”
The best part was she was a black woman, one of the groups most taken for granted by the Rat party. Too many conservatives just write off certain groups as unreachable.
I have seen a lot of people driving some pretty nice cars going to the local food pantry to pick stuff up.
Good thing President Trump is out of office!
Higher gas prices, higher food prices and war.
Things are getting better!
Well the advantage of showing up in an Escalade or Range Rover is you can put more grub in the back....
I remember reading about a dream some Christian minister experienced around the election in 2020 had where he saw a bunch of green flags with a USA dollar sign on each of them. 1/3 of them were burning. That signified to me that if the dream was accurate, a third of our economy was to be destroyed and our purchasing power for the average person would be decreased 33 percent due to massave inflation and a third of all savings and the stock markets would also be reduced in value by a third due to inflation (even if the markets were artificially propped up, their value would be decreased). Don’t know if the dream was from God but even wise men could see that our totally misguided policies to covid, elections, spending and morality would hit our nation deep in the pocketbook!
So your 25 percent increases that you noticed is plausible maybe underestimated. Your coffee price....1/3rd shrinkage and a third price higher for your coffee(with lesser amounts)...a double whammy!
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