Feed Me February: Food crisis hurting poor families

Food prices are sky high around the world because of disruptions in the global supply chain, bad weather and spiking energy prices. These increases, which are felt in many places including the United States, are hurting poorer people globally.

A global index released Thursday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization showed food prices in January climbed to their highest level since 2011. The price of meat, dairy and cereals went up, and the price of oils reached the highest level since the index’s tracking began in 1990.

The world is in crisis, and food shortages are a nightmare for the most vulnerable.

Here at Empowering Everyday Women, our Upstate NY-based nonprofit founded by its award-winning Christian CEO Dianna Hobbs, has kicked off “Feed Me February” to help feed hungry families.

“Women, children, and families need emergency assistance,” said Hobbs, 45, who donates food and other resources to those in need through partnerships with local, regional, national, and global humanitarian organizations.

“Our team has been helping food pantries that are seeing record food shortages and price increases—something that has been devastating for the neighborhoods and communities that depend on them,” explained Hobbs.

Unlike wealthy and some upper middle-class families that can absorb growing costs, impoverished families are already stretched thin and do not have any flexibility or money to spare.

American food prices have risen sharply, putting a burden on the poorest households that spend more of their overall budget on food. The price of meat, poultry, fish and eggs jumped 12.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The price increases have affected grains, vegetable oils, butter, pasta, and beef, and other products. Furthermore, farmers around the globe are facing drought and ice storms that have ruined crops, hiked up the cost for fertilizer and fuel, and made things far worse at a time when pandemic-related labor shortages and supply chain disruptions have already made it difficult to get products to market.

Maurice Obstfeld, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who was formerly chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said that it wasn’t “much of an exaggeration” to say the world was approaching a global food crisis, and that slower growth, high unemployment and stressed budgets from governments that have spent heavily to combat the pandemic had created “a perfect storm of adverse circumstances.”

As the pandemic began in early 2020, the world experienced major shifts in the demand for food. Two years later, global demand for food remains strong, but meeting that demand is challenging.

The I.M.F.’s data shows that average food inflation across the world reached 6.85 percent on an annualized basis in December, the highest level since their series started in 2014.

Between April 2020 and December 2021, the price of soybeans soared 52 percent, and corn and wheat both grew 80 percent, the fund’s data showed.

Parts of Africa, the Middle East and Latin America that are more dependent on imported food are struggling.

In Africa specifically, bad weather, pandemic restrictions and conflicts have disrupted transportation routes and driven up food prices.

Joseph Siegle, the director of research at National Defense University’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies, estimated that 106 million people on the continent are facing food insecurity, double the number since 2018.

To join our Feed Me February efforts CLICK HERE to donate.