The past few years have been especially hard for Rhode Island residents facing food insecurity. Within the Ocean State, 1 in 3 households cannot afford groceries, say advocates for the needy.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank distributed about 12 million pounds of food annually, according to CEO Andrew Schiff. Now, “We’re probably going to exceed 16 million pounds in the coming year, just to try to keep up with this demand,” he said, passing a huge pile of canned fish in the organization’s Providence warehouse.
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Dual headwinds of persistently high food prices and sputtering government aid are imperiling Rhode Island’s safety net, Schiff said.
In the early spring, slowing inflation was making him hopeful that lower prices could be on the horizon. But that positive trajectory was derailed in March when the federal government slashed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in dozens of states.
Those benefits, which had been increased as part of the federal government’s COVID-19 response, helped food banks weather the pandemic storm and contributed to a marked reduction in poverty rates in 2021. The government has started to unwind pandemic-era aid programs, ushering in a dire new reality for food banks, including the Providence-based food bank.
“It was devastating,” Schiff said of the SNAP cuts. “There are 87,000 households in Rhode Island receiving SNAP benefits. On average, they saw a monthly decrease of $155, which doesn’t sound like a lot. But that can be a week’s worth of groceries.”
In all, Schiff said the cuts took away $13 million a month in food benefits from Rhode Islanders. “We immediately saw a surge in the number of people coming to food pantries in every part of the state,” he said. Today, the food bank is serving more than 80,000 people monthly.
Schiff said prices for all foods have risen significantly, hurting the food bank’s bottom line in the process.
The food bank’s spending on food purchases increased by 25% this fiscal year, jumping to $7.4 million from $5.9 million a year ago, according to food bank spokesperson Kate MacDonald. The organization projects that next year’s purchases will top $8 million.
Cost-saving strategies, such as buying nearly half of supplies wholesale, have helped. But they don’t change the recent dramatic increase in food costs, even for the food bank, MacDonald said.
“No matter what kind of food you pick, whether it’s fresh produce, canned food, dairy, everything is more expensive for the food bank, just like it is for any family. In all those categories, costs have pretty much doubled for us,” Schiff said.
If acquiring food is difficult for the food bank, think of how hard it is for lower-income families, Schiff said. He wishes that more attention had been paid to the fact that just in 2022, during a time of high inflation, food prices increased by 13%.
“Again, that may not seem that much to a middle-income, higher-income person,” he said. “But for lower-income people, a 13% increase in food costs means they can’t afford food.”
Schiff hopes the food prices eventually drop, both for people in the grocery store and the food bank itself. The government increasing SNAP benefits would help. But “realistically,” Schiff said, it’s unlikely additional benefits will be distributed “given the political divide in the country and in Congress.”
At this point, nearly 60% of public support to the food bank comes from individual contributions, Schiff said.
The organization is managing to hold its ground. Schiff said the food bank has redoubled its efforts to provide culturally appropriate food for all Rhode Islanders. It was recently one of 10 food banks around the country to receive a $500,000 grant from Feeding America’s Food Security Equity Impact Fund, with the goal of addressing racial disparities in food insecurity.
Also, surveys of visitors to food pantries affiliated with the food bank showed that some people just “did not feel welcome,” Schiff said. “They didn’t see the food that was familiar to them.”
The organization adjusted accordingly. Examples of new food options at the pantries include yuca, fish sauce, masa flour, sofrito and hominy.
“On the one hand, we’re trying our best to purchase food as efficiently as possible and throw down the cost,” Schiff said. Regarding supplying the right food for everyone, “we’re not backing down from that commitment,” he said.
