Rising grocery prices put pressure on millions of Americans already facing food insecurity

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• William Brangham:

  On this day, when Americans traditionally gather with friends and family to celebrate the bounty of food, there are still many in this country struggling to feed themselves.

  According to the USDA, almost 15 percent of families with kids in the U.S. suffer from what's known as food insecurity. As the pandemic continues and prices rise, Amna Nawaz has a closer look at the toll all of this is taking on Americans.

• Amna Nawaz:

  On a recent morning in Virginia, dozens of people bundled up against the November chill to wait for a Thanksgiving turkey. The line at the Arlington Food Assistance Center was orderly and socially distanced.

  And in the middle was Cynthia Anthony, a 73-year-old grappling with how to make ends meet. She moved through the line, checked in, greeted volunteers she's come to know over the past year she's been a regular visitor, and collected her food items.

• Cynthia Anthony, Virginia:

  My food stamps is not enough to hold me throughout the month; $20 in food stamps don't get you nothing, and that's what I get.

• Amna Nawaz:

  What do $20 in food stamps get you these days?

• Cynthia Anthony:

  A half-a-gallon of milk, a pack of hot dogs for $1.99, one loaf of bread. I might be able to get a dozen eggs. If I don't, I get a half-a-dozen. That's where the $20 stop at. That's for a few days. I got 28 or 29 more days to go.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Anthony is not alone; 55-year old Ana Dheming started coming here after she injured her wrist and couldn't work her hotel job anymore. Here, she's able to pick up the essentials.

• Ana Dheming, Virginia:

  They give me tomato, or some onion, potato. They say I don't have to buy.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And then there's 23-year old Jax Garnett, a military spouse and mom of five who's currently looking for work.

• Jax Garnett, Virginia:

  We live on top of a Whole Foods that we can't afford to shop at, so we feel the weight of food inflation and the insecurity on us every day.

• Amna Nawaz:

  A recent survey found that the pandemic made it harder for nearly one out of every three Americans to access food. And of those who responded that they had fewer financial resources, nearly half said they were eating less.

• Charles Meng, CEO, Arlington Food Assistance Center:

  You know, the minimum wage is still $7.25. So, that really is impossible to live on.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Charles Meng is the head of the Arlington Food Assistance Center. He says, since the pandemic started, there's one group they have been seeing more of.

• Charles Meng:

  The typical profile is really the working poor. That's the group that changes the most. We have seen an increase very significantly in that particular group

• Amna Nawaz:

  One reason, rising costs at grocery stores across the country. A dollar just doesn't go as far. A pound of ground beef is up nearly 18 percent over last year. Bacon is up 28 percent, eggs 29 percent.

• Katie Fitzgerald, President, Feeding America:

  For low-income households, about a third of their total income is spent on food. So, this makes it really difficult to have any — any margin right now for them to be able to feed their families.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Katie Fitzgerald is the president of the nonprofit Feeding America that coordinates a network of 200 food banks nationwide.

• Katie Fitzgerald:

  We're seeing skyrocketing transportation costs, labor challenges at food banks, still a challenge to get enough volunteers in. And then just the price of food itself is really pricing out some products that food banks otherwise would normally be procuring for their communities.

• Amna Nawaz:

  At the Arlington Food Assistance Center, director Charles Meng said they bought 2, 400 turkeys to hand out ahead of Thanksgiving, but that came at a cost.

• Charles Meng:

  Last year, we paid a $1.05 per pound for turkeys. We're now paying $1, almost $1.42 per pound. So, there has been a tremendous increase in that cost. And if you're one of our clients, you see that cost in your daily grocery store bill.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Part of what's at play in higher grocery bills begins in backed-up container ships in ports around the world, a lack of truck drivers to transport goods. Higher gas prices. It all adds up to sticker shock on grocery store shelves. And food banks aren't immune.

• Katie Fitzgerald:

  The safety net is subject to those same pressures, right? So, on one hand, if you think about the supply chain backups, we have orders that food banks have for canned fruit and vegetables in particular — that's right now a major problem — that are just not being fulfilled and are delayed weeks, sometimes months.

  The challenges for the supply chain are not sustainable for us, because they're impacting food donations as more food that would otherwise come to us is going to the secondary market.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Another issue facing hungry America, more than 54 million Americans live in areas with poor access to healthy food.

• Charles Meng:

  That's why food insecurity in the United States looks like obesity. We have an abundance, but it's the wrong food.

• Amna Nawaz:

  In Arlington, they have made it part of their mission to help people get more nutritious foods that often come at a higher cost into their diets. With five children, Jax Garnett says it's a big reason she started coming.

• Jax Garnett:

  Sometimes, you're like, OK, I don't want to make macaroni again, even though they like that. It's not nutritious. I need substance. There's a lot of other great resources that are food drives or easy pickup options, but a lot of them don't have fruits and vegetables.

  So, to get something fresh, to get milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables, this is one of the few opportunities in Arlington that offers that.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And with a turkey in her backpack, Garnett headed off, better prepared to feed her family this Thanksgiving.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Amna Nawaz in Arlington, Virginia.