Food is getting a lot more expensive. Groceries overall cost 12% more now than they did a year ago. And some staples are up way more than that, the price of chicken is about 20% higher and the price of eggs is more than 30% higher. 

The mounting cost of food and everything else is pushing more people to food banks again. 

When the pandemic first hit, the number of people going to Feeding South Florida’s food bank more than doubled from 700,000 to more than 1.5 million.

“As people started getting back to work, that number started to decrease and stabilize. And then our families got hit again, this time with inflation,” said Paco Vélez, president and CEO.

Now, Vélez said, the number of people coming is over a million again. And, many are coming a lot more often, too. 

“We’re living through the hungriest summer in recent history,” said Allison O’Toole, CEO of the Second Harvest Heartland food bank in Minnesota. She said more people are struggling now than in the summer of 2020.

“During the height of the pandemic, policymakers came to the table with smart policies to help families,” she said.

That includes enhanced unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and the expanded Child Tax Credit.

“And all of that helped keep the worst of the COVID era hunger at bay,” O’Toole said, adding that since those supports have ended and inflation has spiked, food insecurity is rising again.