Food Banks Seeing High Demand, As Inflation Tightens Grip on America

Food banks across the US are running low on items. Rising inflation is leading people to look for help to feed their families. 

High gas prices and rising food costs are giving families a hard time. Rents are also going up. That's taking its toll on low- and middle-income Americans.

Food banks had begun to see less demand as COVID declined and people returned to work. But now, food banks are looking at a long summer. Distributions from federal food assistance programs can’t buy as much food for people. Food is costing more. And grocery store donations and monetary gifts to food banks don’t go as far.

“It’s really impossible to get by now without some help,” Tomasina John, who waited in a long line last week at a Phoenix area food bank, told The Associated Press (AP). “The prices are way too high.”

The Phoenix food bank’s main distribution center provided food packages to 4,271 families during the third week in June. That's a 78% increase over the 2,396 families served during the same week last year, a spokesman for the nonprofit told the AP.

More Americans are taking on second jobs to deal with rising costs. In June, 426,000 Americans held two full-time jobs. In February of 2020, 308,000 people had two jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the numbers.