By Heather Schlitz
DETROIT, Oct 22 (Reuters) - A neatly packed cardboard box of pasta, dry beans, canned goods and powdered milk made Tonya King cry.
“I’ve been waiting for this,” said King, a 65-year-old Detroit grandmother, her voice cracking while tears streamed down her face. “Finally, my daughter called me and said ‘he’s coming.'"
King had been waiting for Frank Kubik, a director at the Focus: Hope nonprofit food program, who arrived with the box of food that will feed her household of six for two
weeks. The food bank caters mostly to lower-income seniors on fixed incomes, many of whom can no longer afford to pick up food donations because of higher gas prices and need more assistance as grocery prices increase.
The need for food assistance is growing across the United States just as it is becoming costlier for food banks to deliver it. Soaring diesel prices driven up by the US-led war on Iran have raised delivery costs for food while inflation and cuts in federal food assistance have increased demand from struggling Americans.
The cost of living has become a central concern for voters weighing their choices in the US Senate race in Michigan, one of several competitive races in the November 3 midterm elections that could decide whether Democrats can retake control of the US Senate. Nearly half of registered voters nationwide cited the cost of living as the most important factor in their midterm vote, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.
King plans to vote for Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist and former director of Detroit's health department, hoping he will address the rising cost of living and healthcare, two issues at the center of his campaign. His Republican rival, Mike Rogers, has called for suspending state and federal gas taxes and introducing tax cuts to address the issue of affordability.
“I have to decide between my seizure medication and my diabetes medication,” King said. “We need someone to come in and change things.” For King, food is just the first in a long line of necessities she can’t afford as high gas prices cut into what little income her family gets from government assistance.
Their furnace is broken, and the family can’t afford to fix it as winter looms. The house smells of urine – there hasn’t been running water for over a month and King uses a bedpan as cerebral palsy has made her immobile. The gaping hole in the floorboards that shows the basement, exposed window frame where pink insulation peeks through and a crooked porch are the lowest on her list of priorities.
“I was having to hold myself back from tears,” Kubik said as he walked back to his car.
PRESSURE NATIONWIDE
Focus: Hope now delivers 1,300 monthly food boxes to low-income seniors, up from 800 at the start of the year, as rising gas prices make it harder for them to reach food distribution points.
Food pantries across the nation are feeling the strain.
In California, Central California Food Bank co-CEO Kym Dildine said the food bank’s spending on diesel rose 61% from July through September, compared to the same period a year ago.
“That equates to about a quarter million meals that we could have provided in the community now being redirected to fuel costs,” she said. The food bank is the largest hunger relief organization in the region and provides food to charities that feed more than 300,000 people every month.
“Our donors also are being pinched at the pump. Food banks rely on $25 to $250 donations and it’s those donors who are being most impacted by escalating fuel prices,” said Dildine.
At the same time, retailers who previously may have covered transportation expenses for the food they donate are now either sharing the cost or asking food banks to shoulder it, she said.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository, one of the city’s largest food banks, is shifting toward providing cheaper foods, such as eggs, to offset rising fuel costs that are straining its own budget, a spokesperson said.
Cuts to government benefits for lower-income households have added yet another strain to food banks and the hungry. Nationwide, more than 4.7 million people have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, since President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending law took effect last year.
Jona Berry, an 84-year-old retired store clerk in Detroit who also received a food box from Focus: Hope, said the boxes have helped her get by on her fixed income as groceries get more expensive.
"I manage," she said. "I know how to stretch stuff."
(Reporting by Heather Schlitz in Detroit. Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles. Editing by Emily Schmall and Deepa Babington)
