If you saw people or cars lined up to receive free groceries, I bet you’d think the images were from the early days of the pandemic, when uncertainty and fear gripped us all.
The hard truth is that those images are today’s reality. It’s what my team and I see every day as we welcome record numbers of neighbors to our free, fresh market in Oakdale. Statewide, Minnesota’s food shelves saw 5.5 million visits last year, 2 million more than in 2021.
This is a surprising truth to many: I am regularly asked why so many people need food help right now when it feels like we’re on a collective upswing. I tell them that while we’re back to normal in so many ways, normal never worked for too many of our neighbors. Today’s uneven economy, persistent inflation and expiring emergency-era benefits are leaving too many households struggling to make ends meet, and desperately — bravely — reaching out for help.
But these challenges and trade-offs individuals and families face daily are not new. Not this year nor since before the pandemic. For one thing, households earning lower incomes spend a third of their income on food and groceries. For another, even in a strong, pre-pandemic economy, the average wage adjusted for inflation had the same purchasing power it had 40 years prior.
It takes big and sustained investments to keep households on solid footing. We saw this through historic investments from federal and state governments during the pandemic, which lifted millions of Americans out of poverty. In Minnesota, the poverty rate fell dramatically, especially for Minnesota’s kids. But as the pandemic eased and those programs ended, many families found themselves back on shaky ground.
Today, Minnesotans are working — the June 2023 unemployment rate was just 2.9% — but wages aren’t keeping up, particularly for lower-wage jobs. Meanwhile the cost of groceries is still up since last May. Even if food prices grow more slowly this year than last as forecasted, they are still historically high, straining family budgets. For many households, working hard, or after a lifetime of hard work for seniors, doesn’t mean they can afford the food they need to stay healthy.
Here’s another truth: The story of America is one of struggle. But also one of hope. While great need remains, people now know where to turn for help. They know that we want them to reach out. Now, when an unexpected car repair bill comes or an illness hits or the monthly budget simply isn’t working out, our neighbors know where they can go.
We wish that single parents, seniors, college students, families didn’t need to reach out for food help to make ends meet, to stay healthy, to find a small piece of mind. But we know better than to wish it away or deny that reality.
And so we invite the community to pay attention, learn more and get involved in standing with your neighbors. Whether that means donating your time or money to your local food shelf or visiting it to help fill your own cupboard. Let’s be here for each other.
Jessica Francis is the executive director of Open Cupboard.
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