Local Food Pantries Feel Pinch As Inflation Soars

CHICAGO AREA, IL — Local food pantries are seeing significantly higher volumes of people stopping out this year compared to last.

The Willow Creek Care Center in South Barrington, which includes a food pantry where needy residents from across the Chicago area can visit twice per month, has had 54 percent more resident visits this year through September compared to the same time period last year. From January through September of 2021, there were 15,856 visits to the Care Center's food pantry compared to 24,518 visits this year.

"In general, I can tell you that we're seeing a significantly higher number of guests currently than we were at this point last year, including Venezualean and Ukrainian refugees," Carrie Schumacher, the director of the church's Care Center, told Patch.

The Northern Illinois Food Bank, which partners with more than 900 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters across northern Illinois, has seen a nearly 50 percent increase in residents utilizing food pantries compared to pre-COVID times, said Maeven Sipes, chief philanthropy officer for the Northern Illinois Food Bank. In recent months, that has amounted to an average of 430,000 people visiting food pantries per month.

Last year at this time, food pantries that utilize the Northern Illinois Food Bank were seeing an average of 305,000 residents visiting per month, Sipes said.

"Inflation and rising costs are driving neighbors to seek assistance from pantries and programs in our network. Many neighbors don’t have savings and their income isn’t enough to cover the increased expenses they are seeing for food, fuel, utilities and other needs," he said. "If more of their budget needs to go towards paying bills, coming to a food pantry to supplement their food budget is a great strategy to get by."

What local food pantries are seeing has become the new norm, with long lines being reported at food banks across the nation this year as near record-high inflation sparks double-digit increases in the cost of groceries.

At the same time, donations to food assistance programs are down, according to Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization. A monthly pulse survey of its 200 member food banks showed nearly two-thirds, or 65 percent of the food banks, reported more demand for emergency food assistance in June, compared with the previous month.

Nearly all, or 90 percent, reported “increased or steady demand” for services as food prices soar. The member food banks serve and supply 60,000 food pantries, kitchens and meal programs across the country.

• Inflation Squeezes Food Banks Along With Americans Who Depend On Them

In the Chicago area, food prices have increased by 10.6 percent since last year, according to the most recent Consumer Price Index report. The price for groceries increased 13.4 percent, including a 12.7 percent increase in the cost for fruits and vegetables and a 9.6 increase in the cost of meats, poultry, fish and eggs.

With the increase in demand, food pantries are offering different methods for distributing food. In addition to shopping at a pantry, which is the more traditional mode for distributing food, some pantries are also offering drive-thru pick-up of groceries as well as home delivery.

"At Northern Illinois Food Bank we have tripled our investment in purchased food since pre-pandemic to ensure we can have the amount and variety of food our neighbors need," Sipes said. "We are also working to spread awareness so that families in our community know how to find a local pantry."

What You Can Do

Most families are feeling sticker shock amid record inflation. But with so many struggling to put food on their tables there are ways many of us could give back.

Patch has partnered with Feeding America since 2020 to help raise awareness of hunger in our local communities. A persistent national problem, food insecurity was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and high inflation.

Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks across the country, cites USDA figures that show 34 million people, including 9 million children, in the United States are food insecure. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations.

Katie Fitzgerald, the Feeding America executive, said hunger is a persistent but solvable problem. The issue isn’t that there’s not enough food, she said, pointing to food wastes in the tens of billions of pounds every year in the United States.

“We need everyone to be part of that solution — the government, private sector, food donors and folks who can contribute and raise awareness about his solvable but really difficult problem,” Fitzgerald said.

• Inflation Squeezes Food Banks Along With Americans Who Depend On Them

Sipes said the Northern Illinois Food Bank encourages residents who can to assist those facing food insecurity by donating, volunteering or spreading the word on offerings available:

• Donate. Every $1 donated helps provide $8 worth of groceries. That means a $100 donation can feed a family for a month.
• Volunteer. We have hundreds of volunteer opportunities each week to evaluate, repack and distribute food.
• Spread the Word. If you or a neighbor, friend, co-worker or family member is struggling to make ends meet, visit SolveHungerToday.org/GetHelp or call us at 844-600-7627.

Find out more ways you can donate in your community or find more food pantries near you.

Beth Dalby contributed to this article.