MW 'Food inflation is coming down,' Biden says, but experts say food insecurity in America is on the rise

By Zoe Han

More Americans who use food stamps reported skipping meals, eating less and going to food banks to manage costs last month, according to a new report

As President Biden addressed the nation in his annual State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening, food-equity advocates said the increasingly critical issue of food insecurity should be given more airtime. Overall inflation may be starting to ease, they say, but food insecurity for millions of American consumers is worsening.

President Biden addressed several key challenges facing the country in his State of the Union speech, including looming concerns for economic uncertainties, the debt ceiling, as well as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The president did speak about inflation. "Inflation has been a global problem because of the pandemic that disrupted supply chains and Putin's war that disrupted energy and food supplies. But we're better positioned than any country on Earth. We have more to do, but here at home, inflation is coming down," Biden said during his speech on Capitol Hill.

And he briefly mentioned both gas prices and food prices. "Here at home, gas prices are down $1.50 a gallon since their peak," he said. "Food inflation is coming down. Inflation has fallen every month for the last six months while take home pay has gone up."

But food-equity advocates said it's also a crucial time to be talking about how food is still too expensive for millions of Americans, the rise in food insecurity in the U.S. -- and what can be done about it.

More Americans who use food stamps reported skipping meals, eating less and going to food banks to manage costs last month, according to the latest monthly survey by Provider, an app for SNAP users by Propel, an app that aims to help low-income Americans improve their financial health.

In January, 29.2% of 4,184 survey participants said they have skipped meals, up 3 percentage points on the prior month. A fifth said they rely on family and friends to sustain themselves, up 9 percentage points from December, and nearly a third said they have eaten less to manage food costs, up 2 percentage points on December. Close to a quarter (23.5%) said they have visited a food bank in the past month, up from 21% in the prior month.

The Urban Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit policy group based in Washington, D.C., voiced its own concerns about food insecurity last September: "High food price inflation, along with elevated costs for other basic needs, such as transportation and rent, have likely eroded food budgets in the last year. In addition, some of the safety net responses that buffered food insecurity in 2021 are no longer in place."

Prices of eggs, butter and other food have soared

"As the COVID pandemic has been shifting into a different phase, I don't think anyone accounted for the fact that we would have such high food price inflation over the last year and a half," said Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute's Income Benefits Policy Center, a left-leaning think tank. "While a public health emergency may seem not germane anymore, the food prices challenge is still with us," she added.

The rise in the cost of living reached a 40-year-high of 9% in June 2022. In December, the rate of inflation fell to an annual rate of 6.5% from the 7.1% rate recorded in November. However, annual food inflation remained high, hovering at 10.4% in December.

The price of eggs surged 59.9% on the year in December, up from 49% in November, according to the most recent government data. That means a carton of Grade A large eggs on average more than doubled in cost, with prices reaching $4.25 in December 2022, compared with $1.79 a year earlier. In some parts of the country, consumers are paying up to $8 for a carton of organic eggs.

Butter prices rose by 31.4% on the year in December, up from 27% in November, making the average price for a pound of butter $4.81 nationally. It was $3.47 a year earlier.

Last year, President Joe Biden spoke about the need to eliminate food deserts, defined as areas -- predominantly low- and moderate-income communities -- where people have to travel miles to purchase fresh produce and other healthy foods. The White House pledged grant and loan funding to encourage grocery stores to open in these areas.

In a speech made last September, the president vowed to end hunger in the U.S. by 2030 and commit $8 billion by the public and private sector to fight hunger and related diseases, as he launched the first White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health since 1969.

The end of emergency allotments for SNAP recipients

Such funding could not come at a better time, food-equity analysts say. As the economy opened up after the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, several food-subsidy programs are also coming to an end.

The universal school-meal program, which was part of the federal government's emergency nutrition relief, was expanded in 2020 to help families get through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions of people lost their jobs. But it was not renewed for this school year.

For the current school year and the first time in nearly two years, not all school meals in the U.S. will be free. But eligible families can still receive help paying for meals -- as long as they turn in the paperwork

An expanded version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program $(SNAP)$, formerly tied to the public health emergency, will come to an end by Feb. 28. More than 15 states have already ended the boost to the SNAP program, known as emergency allotments, including Alaska, North Dakota and Tennessee.

Emergency allotments allowed all SNAP recipients to receive an additional $95 per month or up to the maximum benefit for their household size, whichever value is greater, according to the Department of Agriculture.

"We are deeply concerned about the impact that the end of SNAP emergency allotment will have on millions of families that needed this critical lifeline for the past three years," said Jerome Nathaniel, director of policy and government relations at City Harvest,one of New York City's largest food-rescue nonprofits. The organization collects food waste from restaurants, bakeries, and cafes.

Losing that extra financial support at a time when food prices are soaring has pushed up the food insecurity nationwide, said Gina Plata-Nino, deputy director for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at the Food Research & Action Center $(FRAC)$, a Washington-D.C. based non-profit focusing on food security and nutrition for low-income households.

"We're back to where we started at the height of the pandemic around December 2020," Plata-Nino said.

-Zoe Han

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 09, 2023 18:18 ET (23:18 GMT)

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