Food banks struggle with inflation costs as demand spikes

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A woman loads her car at a food pantry in Norfolk, Virginia. Inflation sent food prices soaring just as emergency pandemic support for many people ended. Eze Amos for NPR hide caption

A woman loads her car at a food pantry in Norfolk, Virginia. Inflation sent food prices soaring just as emergency pandemic support for many people ended.

NORFOLK, Virginia — On a sultry evening at a neighborhood food pantry in this waterfront city, some in the line outside have come from work. Justine Lee, a teller at a credit union, had never gone to a food bank until prices went crazy this year. Now, she says with a laugh, inflation means "a lot of fussing between mothers and daughters."

She wants to use the moment to teach her 11-year-old the value of money. But on a recent shopping trip, her daughter wanted only Doritos, not the cheaper store-brand chips. Lee also drives to work and says she didn't used to think twice about filling the gas tank, but "it was empty yesterday." She decided to keep driving to a place down the road she thought would be 5 or 10 cents cheaper. "And then I caught myself, 'Wow, am I really doing this?' "

Lee is part of a new surge of people showing up at food banks all over the U.S. this year, a "drumbeat of increasing demand, month over month," says Katie Fitzgerald, president of Feeding America. 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 with little wiggle room.

School bus driver Monique Wilson, in the blue shirt, started coming to a Norfolk food pantry a few months ago because of inflation. She says she and her husband have stopped going out to eat and are consolidating trips to save on gas. Eze Amos for NPR hide caption

At the Norfolk pantry, school bus driver Monique Wilson started coming a few months ago "just to supplement my food budget." She and her husband have cut back on eating out, and to save on gas she uses the car as little as possible, "trying to make one trip do for all and get as many stops in as I can."

Robert Walton is a regular here. He and his wife are retired but raising two grandkids. Inside the building, he grabs a shopping cart and picks out bags with applesauce, juice and sunflower seeds.

"Little snacks like this, that's what the kids like when they can get it," he says.

And he doesn't mean only his own. Walton says he visits several pantries and brings food for other children in his neighborhood. He says a lot of people who lost jobs in the pandemic are still not working, and he can tell that their kids are missing meals. "It's been bad."

Inflation and supply chain problems mean food banks are having to buy more items on the open market, and some foods — such as pasta — can take months to arrive. Retired forklift driver Robert Walton loads his car outside a Norfolk food pantry. He shares some food with neighborhood children who he worries are missing meals. Eze Amos for NPR hide caption

Walton is grateful for the food here. But he and others say they have noticed some favorite items missing, and meat has been especially hard to come by. That's because even as demand surges, food banks are finding it tougher to meet the need.

At the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, President and CEO Christopher Tan shows off a cavernous storage room with empty spots on its shelves. "This would normally be much fuller," he says.

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