Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

COMING UP SHORT

November 13, 2011

Grocers, food banks struggle to help feed hungry families

By Craig Crosby ccrosby@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

SOUTH CHINA — Pete Haskell sits behind his desk in his dimly lit office in the basement of his grocery store.

Upstairs, shoppers load their baskets with cans and boxes, many marked with a blaze orange sticker announcing DISCOUNT.

Haskell, a multi-generational farmer who also owns a trucking and fuel company, has watched the nation's economic woes from different angles, and seen the fear up close on the faces of his customers.

As a farmer, Haskell has felt the pinch of rising fuel costs.

As a fuel dealer, he has carried homeowners until they were able to pay for their heating oil.

And as the new owner of Tobey's Market, Haskell is trying to soften the blow inflicted by the soaring cost of food.

He has been going through lots of orange stickers.

"People are struggling with rising costs of everything," Haskell said. "They're looking to save any way they can."

Recent price spike

While budgets have been blown out by oil spikes in recent years, consumers have at least been able to depend on reasonable food prices.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports the consumer price index for all food -- that purchased at grocery stores and at restaurants -- increased just 0.8 percent between 2009 and 2010, the lowest rate of food inflation since 1962.

But prices for commodities such as corn, wheat and energy, coupled with a weak U.S. dollar and droughts in the West, have recently made a trip to the grocery store as unnerving as pulling up to a gas pump.

The USDA reports overall food prices increased 0.4 percent from June to July this year, and 0.5 percent from July to August. By the end of August, food prices were up 4.6 percent from the same month in 2010.

The price of retail food at the grocery store rose 6 percent from August 2010 to August 2011, the government reported.

By item:

* BEEF prices are up 10.4 percent;

* EGG prices are up 14.5 percent;

* DAIRY products are up 9.1 percent;

* FRESH FRUIT is up 9.1 percent

* BREAD is up 8.6 percent;

* FISH and seafood is up 8.3 percent;

* CEREAL is up 4.5 percent.

"Maine people are pretty resilient," said Tobey's Manager Barry McCormick. "They'll suffer through this and survive. They'll feed their families, but it's getting tougher and tougher every day."

Maine near worst

Clara McConnell, spokeswoman for Good Shepherd Food Bank said 15.4 of Maine's households -- 200,000 people -- currently struggle with "food insecurity," defined as having difficulty providing enough food for their families at some point in the past year.

Maine ranks 13th in the nation -- first in New England -- in food insecurity and is sixth in the nation in terms of "very low food security" -- households that must reduce the food intake of some members due to limited resources.

As a result, many families are looking in places they never did before: Namely, their local food pantries.

"Throughout the state, there's at least a 20 percent increase in people needing assistance. In some places its 50 percent," said Jason Hall, interim director for Maine Department of Agriculture's emergency food assistance program. "We're seeing people with three or four jobs. We're seeing professionals. The economy is so bad that they're seeking assistance now. It's something they've never done before."

For Hall, who has 15 years of experience in hunger relief in Maine, it's uncharted territory.

"It's the worst I've seen it," he said. "We're in a state where there's a stigma going to a pantry, (but) you're seeing people from all walks of life."

(Continued on page 2)

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