TRI-CITIES, Wash. – Inflation has raised food prices 2.6% from January 2023 to January 2024, according to the Department of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index.
Foodbanks in the region are seeing the impact even a small price increase can have on the people who need them.
Second Harvest works with food banks to supply food from processors, grocers and farms throughout the region.
Eric Williams with Second Harvest said inflation has impacted the food banks the company gives food to. He said now more and more people need food banks to feed their families.
He said foodbanks have noticed the increase most over the last six months.
“The people who are struggling and need to access food banks, food pantries, inflation and especially food inflation, which over the last year and a half has been worse than regular inflation,” Williams said. “They’re having to pay more at the grocery store just to try to feed themselves and their families.”
He also said while the number of people donating to second harvest has stayed the same, the amount people are donating has gone down as even people who donate deal with inflation in their budgets.
While 90% of the food from Second Harvest is donated to them, according to Williams, the other 10% is purchased food. As food prices go up what they can buy with what they have goes down, even in the large quantities of food they get.
Williams said one of the benefits of serving Washington and Idaho is the amount of agriculture in the area.
“There’s so much bounty here, so much fantastic agriculture. And again, the huge generosity of the farmers and the processors and the grocers that really helps us,” he said.
He also said he doesn’t want people not to go to food banks thinking they don’t have enough food as they have been working to keep up with demand.
He said Second Harvest has hired more people to source food from the region to continue to support the growing need in the community.
