The Rising Cost of Food
This week I attended the House Hunger Caucus briefing on the rising cost of food prices. Many of you may have noticed that your grocery bills have been increasing. The numbers are out; U.S. food prices rose 4% in 2007 and are expected to increase between 3.5% and 4.5% this year. The main culprits for this increase are rising energy costs and rising farm commodity prices. These growing costs affect low-income homes more because those homes spend a larger percent of their budget on food. A middle class family will spend approximately 12% of their income on food, whereas a low income family will spend about one third of their income on food.
These price increases are also putting the emergency food systems that are in place to serve the hungry in a pinch. Second Harvest recently reported that government commodities, the typically healthy food that many emergency assistant programs rely on, have been reduced an astonishing 75% over the past year.
Although this situation seems painful and is putting even more stress on low-income families, there is some hope. The Farm Bill, which is still working its way through congress, has a nutrition title that would increase food stamp benefits. This would help to off set the rising cost of food for families eligible for food stamps. Along the same lines, the second economic stimulus package, that will be taking shape over the next few months, could give families on food stamps additional food stamps temporarily. These programs provide a patch to the problem; we still need to continue to work to end the root causes of poverty.
