National supply shortages and inflation are taking a toll on local food banks, forcing them to redirect their budgets to keep afloat as they struggle to provide the same level of service as before – a challenge that’s been building for several years.
Roadrunner Food Bank spokeswoman Sonya Warwick said the organization has seen a “significant” decrease in food donations and federal help in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
She said food availability has become more scarce even among industry partners, including farmers, food manufacturers and grocery stores. These partners would donate unsalable food items that were still edible and good to distribute in what Warwick called “food rescue” – but the amount donated is shrinking.
Federal aid has dwindled as well, according to Warwick. The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program established during the pandemic, which was “a significant help in those years,” has run out and is no longer a source of support to food banks.
Those two resources alone represented a significant amount of the food Roadrunner received and distributed, Warwick said.
These shortages mean organizations such as the Rio Grande Food Project have to provide smaller portions of food to its clients, often relying on shelf-stable staples such as canned and box food instead of healthier items, according to a statement from the organization’s co-executive directors, Ari Herring and Kayla Strickler.
“We try to stretch our resources best we can while still providing substantive boxes of free groceries,” the statement said. “… we are proud to still offer three distributions per week.”
Meanwhile, in addition to the shortages, there is the issue of rising food prices, which means Roadrunner’s usual budget no longer covers the amount of food it once did.
“Food is a lot more expensive even for us to buy,” Warwick said. “What we could buy two years ago, for example, just for the regular consumer, is way more expensive than what it was in 2020 or 2019.”
Herring and Strickler said all these problems stem from complex systemic issues, ranging from high inflation, low donations and even global conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, which has sent “ripple effects far and wide” through supply chains.
“Rio Grande Food Project has spent more and more on food each year since 2020, and can still only provide about half of what we used to provide our guests each visit than we could pre-pandemic,” according to Strickler.
How to help
Roadrunner Food Bank spokeswoman Sonya Warwick said she hopes the community can be encouraged to get involved with local hunger relief organizations to help close the gaps that have been growing.
There are ways people can help such groups, she said. Among them:
⋄ Money donations, for one, can help increase the purchasing budget to account for the escalating prices.
⋄ Stamp Out Hunger, the nation’s largest single-day food drive, is coming up on May 13, and will create a wide opportunity for everyone to lend a hand. Stamp Out Hunger – held through the U.S. Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers – is a daylong event in which residents can leave bags of non-perishable food at their mailbox and letter carriers will pick them up and deliver to Roadrunner Food Bank, which is the local recipient for the event.
⋄ Volunteer. Warwick stressed the importance of having enough helping hands to run their organization.
“Everyone deserves to have access to basic nutrition, especially fresh and nutrient-dense foods,” said Kayla Strickler, co-executive director of the Rio Grande Food Project. “Diet is a core social determinant of health and wellbeing, so we must communally step up to share resources and take care of our neighbors.”
