Soaring prices dampen Thanksgiving mood

The coming Thanksgiving festival in the United States will be the most expensive in years because of high food prices, which are also hurting many of the country's food banks, on which tens of millions of people in the US rely.

Nearly every component of the Thanksgiving feast, from the turkey to the disposable roasting pan, after-dinner coffee and quintessential pumpkin pie will cost more this year.

Labor shortages, higher transportation costs, supply chain disruptions and extreme weather are factors. In addition, Americans are spending more time cooking and eating at home, increasing the demand for foodstuffs.

Last month the US consumer price index for food rose 5.3 percent from a year ago, the most since January 2009, the Labor Department reported on Wednesday.

In fact, food prices are rising worldwide. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said that prices rose for a third straight month in October and reached a 10-year high. The index rose 31.3 percent from October 2020, the agency said.

More people are seeking help from food banks, said Brian Greene, president of the Houston Food Bank, the largest Feeding America food bank in the country, which serves about 100,000 families a week.

"The lines are longer than they were prior to COVID-19," he said.

Because most of the food in the Houston Food Bank is surplus food from donations, rising food prices have not influenced the agency's food supply greatly, he said.

"The foods that would normally go to the supermarkets are decreasing, but on the other hand, (for) the foods that are going to the restaurants, we have a huge increase there. So we don't really see an overall decrease in food (supply). To this day I would not say that overall supply of donations is down; they have just shifted. It is a very unstable market."

The story is different for other food banks.

"We are seeing price increases from our vendors of between 2 percent to 10 percent for some items," said Paule Pachter, chief executive of Long Island Cares-The Harry Chapin Food Bank. The agency provides food and support services for a network of more than 374 community-based member agencies, including food pantries, emergency shelters, child care programs, disability organizations and veterans services programs.

Seeking help

The increase in food prices is causing more people to seek help from food pantries, but food donations are decreasing, Pachter said. Food banks are seeing increasing "donor fatigue", and more donors are willing to volunteer rather than make continuous donations of food.

"We are experiencing a significant decrease in the total amount of food donations being made to the regional food bank. As of Sept 30 food donated through food drives is down by 20 percent compared with the same time in 2020. We are seeing a decrease in both in-person and virtual food drives being hosted this year."

As food prices rose, the administration of US President Joe Biden announced an increase to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in August, describing it as the largest in the history of the food-stamp program. People will receive more in monthly payments, but those higher benefits are unlikely to offset continuing price rises.