![]() Like, I'm looking at something like bananas. TOM CHARLEY: We're taking a hit on items. So let's zoom out of Florida and see how rising food prices are hitting businesses and consumers all across the country. So I have to pass that cost onto my customers by raising the prices.ĬHANG: This is a cycle that we are seeing everywhere. JACOBS: And so for me, it's affecting my pricing in the bakery. So it's risen almost - what? - four times the price that it once was.ĬHANG: And that spike in prices has a ripple effect. It's gone up so much that it was $62 last week. For example, I buy a box of 15 dozen eggs. JENNIFER JACOBS: Ingredient costs for me have risen significantly. Those increases also hit small business owners like Jennifer Jacobs, who owns a bakery in nearby Clearwater. Ground beef, for example, is 10% more expensive than it was a year ago. Meat is up considerably.ĬHANG: Holmes is right. And to me, it seems like everything went up. ![]() HOLMES: You have to be a little more strategic in your planning of meals. But rising food prices are still changing the way they shop and eat. Her husband works in construction, and business is good. Like, she's picking things up, like - and it's 40 and 50 cents higher than it was even a year ago.ĬHANG: Holmes is 54. ![]() And it's funny to hear someone that young to say, I remember when this was - and that's what we just went through in here. TIFFANY HOLMES: I was shopping with my daughter. ![]() Earlier this month, in a town near that food pantry in Florida we just heard about, Tiffany Holmes was loading groceries into her car in a Walmart parking lot. We'll look at the effect that's having on businesses and consumers, including those who are most vulnerable to food insecurity.ĬHANG: From NPR, I'm Ailsa Chang. That's the biggest annual rise since 1979. Nationally, the cost of food has risen nearly 11% in the past year. The metro area where she lives has one of the highest rates of inflation in the country. And if I want to eat, I've got more time than I have money, so I'm grateful that there's places like this that I can go to.ĬHANG: Mallen is not alone in feeling the squeeze of rising prices. MALLEN: Everything, everything has gone up. MALLEN: Thank God God laid a hybrid on my heart when my other car died, my eight-cylinder car died.ĬHANG: But when it comes to food, that is one budget item that's getting harder and harder to afford. And she has a car, which helps her get to all the medical appointments. But now it's my main source of food because I don't have money left over - with the increase in everything, I don't have money left over to go to the grocery store, and I still have to eat.ĬHANG: Now, Mallen owns her home. MALLEN: And I started going just for extras, and I would still go to Aldi and things like that. And now she goes to two or three pantries around town regularly. But then, everything started getting more and more expensive. And at first, it was just kind of this occasional thing. A friend brought her to the pantry for the first time last year. She's on disability, battling brain cancer and a rare bone disease. JILL MALLEN: I'm just thankful that there are places like this that I can go get food because I can't afford to go to Aldi and places like I used to go.ĬHANG: Mallen is 62, and she has a fixed income. So once a week, Jill Mallen goes to a food pantry in St.
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