American food insecurity: The rising cost of living makes it difficult for people with jobs to feed their families

CNN
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The mix of locals who visit the Enfield Food Shel in Connecticut has changed a lot in recent years.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, many were elderly or disabled on fixed incomes, said Kathleen Souvigney, the food bank’s executive director for the past decade.

But now the people seeking help are increasingly working families struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living skyrockets. Nowadays, paying for childcare, housing, cars, heating and other basic needs does not leave enough money for food, which has also risen sharply in price, Souvigney hears again and again.

“Most of the new people are working families,” she said. “Many of the jobs don’t pay enough to cover costs and put aside some savings. It now seems like one unexpected expense is turning people’s finances upside down.”

Although the U.S. economy is strong by many measures, millions of Americans still cannot afford to buy enough food for themselves and their families. The share of people turning to hunger relief programs remains higher than before the pandemic.

Just over 1 in 10 adults – more than 23 million people – live in households where there was sometimes or often not enough food to eat in the past week, according to the US Census Bureau’s latest Household Pulse Survey, conducted in March. In Connecticut, where the median income is higher than the U.S. average, the share is closer to 1 in 8.

The runaway inflation that started in 2021 has abated, but prices remain much higher and continue to put pressure on wallets. Groceries cost about 33.5% more than they did at the start of the pandemic, according to Datasembly’s Grocery Price Index, which tracks prices at more than 150,000 stores nationwide.

Although there are plenty of jobs and wage increases finally exceeded inflation last year, the paychecks appear not to be thick enough for many people. In addition, many of the pandemic relief measures that have kept Americans afloat — including the increased child tax credit, a pause on student loan payments and more generous food stamp benefits — have expired.

“It’s a tough environment for people,” said Jason Jakubowski, CEO of Connecticut Foodshare, the state’s food bank, which works with more than 600 food banks, meal programs and mobile distribution sites that served more than 40 million meals last fiscal year. . “We are at a point where the need is about the same as it was at the height of the pandemic.”

Although Khamphay Khen works full-time as a supervisor at a distribution company and has a part-time job as an assistant technician at a fast-food restaurant, he still struggles to provide for all the needs of his family of six.

So since 2021 he has been visiting the local pantry in Enfield to pick up meat, pasta, spaghetti sauce, bread, cereal and fruit and vegetables. Initially going every two weeks, the 48-year-old now visits weekly as his expenses have increased – even though he has received generous pay rises from his main employer in recent years.

“The need is greater. The costs are still high. Gas prices are high. Owning a home is a struggle,” says Khen, who recently had to spend $1,400 to buy new tires, replace the starter motor and make other repairs on his 2005 Honda Odessey. “Every time I go to my bank account Look, it always goes down.”

The pantry allows him to keep his grocery bills under control, saving him an estimated $30 to $50 per week so he has the money to spend on other necessities for himself and his family. Khen is also trying to save money because he has muscular dystrophy and knows he won’t be able to work as much in the future.

Khen, who considers himself at the bottom of the middle class, never thought he would have to visit a food bank because he has been working since he was a teenager.

“I’m in a good place, but not a great place,” he said.

The Enfield Food Shelf serves between 300 and 400 households per week. In addition to food, the nonprofit also provides other items such as clothing, laundry detergent, diapers and pet food.

Like most other food pantries, Enfield saw a surge in people seeking help when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. But demand hasn’t abated — in part because many pandemic relief programs have expired.

When a special increase in food stamps ended nationwide in March 2023, recipients’ monthly benefits shrank by about $90 on average. Since then, Enfield has seen a 20% increase in the number of households seeking assistance, bringing the total to 1,126 visiting the pantry.

“People are trying to stay within their budget at the grocery store, but it’s just not enough food to feed their families,” Souvigney said, noting that most customers come three times a month.

Food banks across the country are also experiencing increased demand. According to a recent survey by Feeding America, a national network of more than 200 food banks and more than 60,000 partner organizations, about 75% of food banks reported seeing an increase in the number of people served in February compared to a year earlier. pantries and meal programs.

About one in six adults said their household received charity food last year, up from almost one in eight in 2019, according to a report from the Urban Institute.

In addition to rising prices, another pressure for many middle-class families is the fact that their wages have not kept pace with inflation, as have the wages of their counterparts at the bottom and top of the income ladder, says Chloe East, a visiting scholar at The New York Times. Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. That’s one reason working Americans are turning to food banks.

“Even though there are many jobs available and unemployment is low, we are seeing an increase in food insecurity,” East said. “And now food insecurity is as bad as it was in the first few months of the pandemic.”