Food banks are struggling this holiday season as inflation creates ‘perfect storm’

Food banks across the country will enter this holiday season with their resources strained as inflation continues to pummel the economy.

Soaring food prices and a drop in donations mean many food bank warehouses are more thinly stocked than in recent years, said Katie Fitzgerald, chief operating officer at Feeding America, a nonprofit overseeing a network of more than 200 food banks across the country.

Meanwhile, some food banks report they are busier than they were during the worst of the economic shutdown during the pandemic in 2020, Fitzgerald told USA TODAY. 

Earlier this year, over 150 of Feeding America’s 200 food banks reported seeing increased or steady demand for services as food prices increased. 

“With the demand being so great, the supply being so short, and inflation being high, it’s just a perfect storm for long lines at the bank,” San Antonio Food Bank’s president Eric Cooper told USA TODAY.