Higher prices hit food pantries ahead of Thanksgiving
Higher prices hit food pantries ahead of Thanksgiving
This week, food banks around the country are giving out Thanksgiving provisions, and they’re dealing with double-digit price increases for some key items. Compared to last year, the price of potatoes is up 15% and pies are up 19%. And the center of the Thanksgiving table, turkeys, are up 17%. So, food banks are having to think creatively and make compromises.
One of those places is Beans and Bread, which is located in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore. It’s a few days before Thanksgiving and James Bobbitt, who works there, is ushering people in. It’s mostly men, but a few women and the occasional kid who are coming in for a free meal.
The center, which is run by St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore, also has a shelter and a food bank. Victoria Ezeji, the volunteer coordinator, walks me through the bustling kitchen to a quieter space. Brown paper bags are lined up on the floor with Thanksgiving ingredients inside.
In the past, Beans and Bread has given away up to 300 bags. This year, Ezeji says they only have the donations so far to make about 115. At the same time, the demand for food has increased.
“We have pumpkin or apple pies that will go in them. Some canned goods such as potatoes, greens,” said Ezeji.
There’s also usually a turkey. But this year that’s not a given.
“It’s cheaper with chicken. So some of our donors are resorting to buying chicken,” said Ezeji.
If they run out of whole birds, they’ll ask donors to buy sliced turkey to make sandwiches as a last resort.
Because food prices have gone up so much donors’ dollars just don’t go as far.
“The amount of food that is donated right now into the charitable food system does not meet the demand for food assistance,” said Katie Fitzgerald, one of the leaders of Feeding America, the country’s largest hunger relief organization, which has a network of food banks around the country. “Food banks really had a lot of support through the pandemic, with government assistance. A lot of those funds are drying up.”
That means more food banks are dipping into their reserve funds to buy food, which Fitzgerald says isn’t sustainable.
Back at Beans and Bread, James Bobbitt, who works there, was once homeless himself, and says people will be grateful for whatever is in their Thanksgiving bags.
“Some people like turkey sandwiches instead of sliced turkey or off the bird. Me, I love turkey, period. So I’m going to eat whatever they bring. It’s a blessing,” he said.
Because right now, both food pantries and the people they serve are trying to make do with less.
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