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U.S. Food Banks Struggle To Feed Hungry Amid Surging Prices

Published

4 years ago

November 12, 2021

Editor

U.S. food banks already dealing with increased demand from families sidelined by the pandemic now face a new challenge — surging food prices and supply chain issues walloping the nation.

The higher costs and limited availability mean some families may get smaller servings or substitutions for staples such as peanut butter, which some food banks are buying for nearly double what it cost two years ago. As holidays approach, some food banks worry they won’t have enough stuffing and cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“What happens when food prices go up is food insecurity for those who are experiencing it just gets worse,” said Katie Fitzgerald, chief operating officer of Feeding America, a nonprofit organization that coordinates the efforts of more than 200 food banks across the country.

Food banks that expanded to meet unprecedented demand brought on by the pandemic won’t be able to absorb forever food costs that are two to three times what they used to be, she said.

Supply chain disruptions, lower inventory and labor shortages have all contributed to increased costs for charities on which tens of millions of people in the U.S. rely on for nutrition. Donated food is more expensive to move because transportation costs are up, and bottlenecks at factories and ports make it difficult to get goods of all kinds.

If a food bank has to swap out for smaller sizes of canned tuna or make substitutions in order to stretch their dollars, Fitzgerald said, it’s like adding “insult to injury” to a family reeling from uncertainty.

In the prohibitively expensive San Francisco Bay Area, the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Oakland is spending an extra $60,000 a month on food.

Combined with increased demand, it is now shelling out $1 million a month to distribute 4.5 million pounds (2 million kilograms) of food, said Michael Altfest, the Oakland food bank’s director of community engagement.

Pre-pandemic, it was spending a quarter of the money for 2.5 million pounds (1.2 million kilograms) of food.

The cost of canned green beans and peaches is up nearly 9% for them, Altfest said; canned tuna and frozen tilapia up more than 6%; and a case of 5-pound frozen chickens for holiday tables is up 13%. The price for dry oatmeal has climbed 17%.

On Wednesdays, hundreds of people line up outside a church in east Oakland for its weekly food giveaway. Shiloh Mercy House feeds about 300 families on those days, far less than the 1,100 families it was nourishing at the height of the pandemic, said Jason Bautista, the charity’s event manager. But he’s still seeing new people every week.

“And a lot of people are just saying they can’t afford food,” he said. “I mean they have the money to buy certain things, but it’s just not stretching.”

Families can also use a community market Shiloh opened in May. Refrigerators contain cartons of milk and eggs while sacks of hamburger buns and crusty baguettes sit on shelves.

Oakland resident Sonia Lujan-Perez, 45, picked up chicken, celery, onions bread and and potatoes — enough to supplement a Thanksgiving meal for herself, 3-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son.

The state of California pays her to care for daughter Melanie, who has special needs, but it’s not enough with monthly rent at $2,200 and the cost of milk, citrus, spinach and chicken so high.

“That is wonderful for me because I will save a lot of money,” she said, adding that the holiday season is rough with Christmas toys for the children.

Many people also rely on other government aid, including the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Kate Waters, a spokeswoman for the USDA, which administers the SNAP program, said there were no immediate plans for an emergency boost in SNAP benefits to compensate for the rising food costs.

But she said that previous moves by the Biden administration such as the permanent increase in SNAP benefits earlier this year and a fresh wave of funding for food banks should help ease the burden. In addition, Waters said the fact that schools are open and offering free lunches and, in some cases, free breakfast, should also help.

Bryan Nichols, vice president of sales for Transnational Foods Inc., which delivers to more than 100 food banks associated with Feeding America, said canned foods from Asia— such as fruit cocktail, pears and mandarin oranges— have been stuck overseas because of a lack of shipping container space.

Issues in supply seem to be improving and prices stabilizing, but he expects costs to stay high after so many people got out of the shipping business during the pandemic.

“An average container coming from Asia prior to COVID would cost about $4,000. Today, that same container is about $18,000,” he said.

At the Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado in Colorado Springs, CEO Lynne Telford says the cost for a truckload of peanut butter —40,000 pounds (18,100 kilograms)_has soared 80% from June 2019 to $51,000 in August.

Mac and cheese is up 19% from a year ago and the wholesale cost of ground beef has increased 5% in three months. They’re spending more money to buy food to make up for waning donations and there’s less to choose from.

The upcoming holidays worry her. For one thing, the donation cost to buy a frozen turkey has increased from $10 to $15 per bird.

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

Alameda County Community Food Bank says it is set for Thanksgiving, with cases of canned cranberry and boxes of mashed potatoes among items stacked in its expanded warehouse. Food resourcing director Wilken Louie ordered eight truckloads of frozen 5-pound chickens —which translates into more than 60,000 birds— to give away free, as well as half-turkeys available at cost.

For that, Martha Hasal is grateful.

“It’s going to be an expensive Thanksgiving, turkey is not going to cost like the way it was,” said Hasal as she loaded up on on cauliflower and onions on behalf of the Bay Area American Indian Council. “And they’re not giving out turkey. So thank God they’re giving out the chicken.”

(AP)

Headline

UK Rejects Nigeria’s Request To Transfer Ekweremadu

Published

19 hours ago

November 24, 2025

Editor

The United Kingdom has rejected a request from the Nigerian government to transfer former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu to Nigeria to complete his prison sentence.

Ekweremadu is serving time in a UK facility after he was found guilty in 2023 of plotting to harvest the kidney of a young man.

He received a jail term of nine years and eight months following the conviction, which stemmed from a high-profile organ-trafficking case that drew international attention.

With the latest decision, Ekweremadu will remain in the UK to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

Headline

Trump Blasts Ukraine For ‘Zero Gratitude’ Amid Talks To Halt War

Published

2 days ago

November 23, 2025

Editor

US President Donald Trump on Sunday accused Ukraine again of lacking “gratitude” for Washington’s support against Russia’s invasion, as top US and Ukrainian representatives met in Geneva for talks on a proposal to halt the war.

“UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, also blasting European countries for not doing enough to stop the war, but offering no direct condemnation of Moscow.

His comments came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was meeting with top Ukrainian officials in a wintery Geneva Sunday to discuss the US president’s controversial 28-point plan for ending the nearly four-year conflict.

The Ukrainian delegation, headed by Andriy Yermak, also met with high-level officials from Britain, France and Germany in the Swiss city, as European countries scramble to have a seat at the table in the discussions.

Trump had given Ukraine until November 27 to approve the plan, but Kyiv wants changes to a draft that accepts a range of Russia’s hardline demands, including requiring the invaded country to cede territory, cut its army and pledge never to join NATO.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Sunday said he was “sceptical” a deal could be reached by that deadline.

The US president told reporters Saturday the proposal was not his final offer and he hoped to stop the fighting “one way or the other”, raising hopes that it would be possible to strengthen Kyiv’s position.

– ‘Ukrainian perspectives’ included –

A US official, who asked not to be named, told AFP that a number of meetings were held throughout the day Sunday, with the US and Ukrainian delegation holding “detailed discussions about the peace agreement”.

“It was productive and even conclusive in some areas,” the official said, adding that a second round of talks underway at the US mission in Geneva aimed at “ironing out the details of the agreement”.

By late Sunday afternoon, Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov said the latest version of the US draft plan, which AFP has not seen, “already reflects most of Ukraine’s key priorities”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said on social media that the “American proposals may include a number of elements based on Ukrainian perspectives and critical for Ukrainian national interests”, hailing that “diplomacy has been reinvigorated”.

– Recognise European ‘centrality’ –

The US plan was drafted without input from Ukraine’s European allies, who were striving Sunday to make their voices heard and boost Kyiv’s position.

“Ukraine must have the freedom and sovereign right to choose its own destiny. They have chosen a European destiny,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement, stressing that the “centrality” of the European Union’s role must be “fully reflected” in any peace plan.
Ukraine’s European allies gathered at the G20 summit in South Africa stressed that the US plan requires “additional work”.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb told AFP that he and Italian leader Giorgia Meloni had called Trump early Sunday to discuss his Ukraine proposal.

“Of course, we discussed the situation, the 28-point plan, and some of the developments here in Johannesburg related to the peace plan,” he said, declining to reveal the content of the discussions.

French President Emmanuel Macron told a news conference at the G20 that the plan contained points that had to be more broadly discussed as they concerned European allies, such as Ukraine’s NATO ties and Russian frozen assets held in the EU.

He said the 30 countries in the “coalition of the willing” supporting Kyiv will hold a video call on Tuesday following the Geneva talks.
European Union countries were also planning to meet to discuss the Ukraine situation on the sidelines of a meeting with African leaders in Angola on Monday.

– ‘Wish list’ –

Questions were meanwhile being raised over how much input Moscow may have had in drafting the original proposal, which was welcomed by the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the blueprint could “lay the foundation” for a final peace settlement, but threatened more land seizures if Ukraine walked away from negotiations.
Ahead of Sunday’s talks, Washington insisted the Trump proposal was official US policy, denying claims by a group of US senators that Rubio told them the document was a Russian “wish list”.

Rubio himself insisted on social media late Saturday that “the peace proposal was authored by the US”.

“It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations. It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”
That did not calm all concerns.

“Together with the leaders of Europe, Canada and Japan, we have declared our readiness to work on the 28-point plan despite some reservations,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X Sunday.

“However, before we start our work, it would be good to know for sure who is the author of the plan and where was it created.”

Headline

Pope Leo XIV Demands Immediate Release Of 315 Abducted Niger Students, Teachers

Published

2 days ago

November 23, 2025

Editor

Pope Leo XIV has appealed for the immediate release of 315 people abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Agwarra Local Government Area of Niger State.

Speaking on Sunday, the Pontiff expressed deep distress over the mass kidnapping, which included students, teachers, priests, and other members of the Catholic community.

“I received with profound sorrow the news of the abduction of priests, faithful, and schoolchildren. I make a heartfelt plea for the swift and unconditional release of all those being held,” Pope Leo XIV said.

The attack occurred in the early hours of Friday when armed men reportedly invaded the private Catholic school in a well-coordinated operation.

According to local sources, the assailants arrived in large numbers, riding on more than 60 motorcycles and supported by a van, before forcing their way into the premises.

During the assault, the school’s gatekeeper was shot and left critically injured.

A resident of Agwarra confirmed the incident, noting that the exact number of abducted students has yet to be verified.

IPOB kicks against Nnamdi Kanu’s transfer to Sokoto prison
“It happened between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.. The number of students taken is still unclear,” the source said.

Another community source added that several teachers were also seized during the raid, raising further concerns about the scale of the attack and the safety of the victims.