In what has become a customary annual response during hurricane season, nonprofit food agencies from South Florida quickly rolled trucks and deployed legions of workers last week to help the distressed victims of Hurricane Idalia as it pounded the Gulf Coast of Florida.
But the missions took place in an economic climate that is hardly ideal, as inflation has driven up operating costs and chipped away at the ability of lower-wage earners to put enough food on the table. In short, demand is up in a field where organizations can’t pass their costs to clients.
According to a recent survey by Farm Share, the state’s largest nonprofit food bank, many Florida families are reducing the amount of food they consume and making less healthy choices because they can’t afford to pay grocery bills that they easily fielded a year ago.
“Inflation has had a dramatic impact on us as a food bank,” Farm Share CEO Stephen Shelley said. He said the cost of delivering food has risen from 9 cents to 13 cents a pound since last year as fuel, employee wages, truck maintenance and the electricity needed to power refrigeration units “have gone up dramatically.”
“As a nonprofit I can’t pass on those costs to consumers.as I have to find additional sources of revenue or I have to cut services,” Shelley said. “It is a big deal.”
The amount of food the organization distributed fell year over year in 2022 to 104 million pounds from 123 to 124 million pounds.
“We do get funded by the state of Florida,” he said. “The state has stepped up and provided record amounts for Farm Share.”
The need is greater than one might expect in a state that is regarded by economic development specialists as a prime spot for relocations from elsewhere around the nation. By Shelley’s calculation, there are 4 million people in Florida who face food insecurity and more than 900.000 of them are children.
Deteriorating eating habits
Clients in need of help are cutting back.
A recent survey of 440 people that Farm Share conducted statewide shows a darkening picture for Floridians whose wages aren’t keeping pace with inflation. Many families are reducing the amount of food they consume and making less healthy choices.
“The survey found that more than half of all Floridians have modified their eating habits in some way due to food inflation, with low-income families disproportionately affected,” Farm Share said in a statement. ”The impact is particularly pronounced among families with children under 18 (77%), Black (69%) and Hispanic residents (66%), and individuals under the age of 45 (66%).”
Nearly a third of parents are cutting back on fresh produce purchases, and 21% acknowledged eating more processed foods.
“In a state of over 4 million children, that equates to about 840,000 Florida kids consuming more processed or fast foods due to food inflation this year,” the organization concluded..
Among other dietary adjustments people are making to help stretch their dollars:
- 22% are reducing their consumption of meat.
- 20% are changing their grocery shopping locations.
- 18% are purchasing fewer quantities of fresh produce.
- 12% are opting for more processed or fast food options.
Farm Share says it is distributing more than 8 million pounds of healthy and nutritious food a month around the state via direct community food distribution events with the help of 2,000 local nonprofit agencies.
Similar signs of stress are being observed by Feeding South Florida, which serves Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, said Francisco “Paco” Velez, CEO and president.
“Inflation is affecting a lot of working families where it is getting increasingly difficult to live if you are making $50,000 to $75,000 a year,” he said.
For a statewide economy that’s boasting a jobless rate that is less than the national average, the numbers of patrons seeking help each year is still lofty.
“We’re seeing 1.2 million individuals coming through our doors, which is not quite at the level at the beginning of COVID,” he said. “But they are coming at a pretty frequent pace. “
They include people between jobs or those with health and transportation issues.
Feeding South Florida works with more than 250 nonprofit agencies across the four counties providing more than 72 million pounds of food a year. It operates facilities in Pembroke Park and Boynton Beach that serve as pantries and points of origin for food distribution and preparation activities.
“Most of the families we’re serving are employed and have at least one job in the household,” Velez said.
Feeding South Florida also offers a culinary education program, training for warehouse-oriented jobs and financial literacy programs.
Storm relief unabated
Despite the economic pressures, nonprofit agencies such Farm Share, Feeding South Florida and the Global Empowerment Mission of Doral all rallied people, trucks and support partners to ship food and other necessities north to help Idalia’s victims.
“Our mission is more humanitarian aid and disaster relief,” said Patrick Lynch, chief development officer at GEM. “The need is there regardless of economic conditions.”
He said the organization’s donors — particularly the larger wealthy ones — have shown no signs of letting up with their contributions.
“The really large donors, the folks who have true wealth, have the capacity to give that extends beyond the impact of inflation,” he said. “Hopefully, me saying this out loud doesn’ t change things. If (inflation) were to extend over a longer period of time, we may see an impact.”
He suggested that smaller “micro” donations of $10 to $20 a month might be the first to slack off if the economy worsens.
While GEM shipped food and other supplies to the Perry area of North Florida, the group’s efforts are not confined to the state.
GEM is operating a warehouse in Kyiv, Ukraine, that is supplying food and 200,000 “family necessities kits” a month in areas liberated from invading Russian forces. Another project involves replacing windows in residential buildings struck during missile attacks.
Back in Florida, GEM, in conjunction with a Food Share base camp at a Baptist church in Perry, deployed people and distributed humanitarian supplies on Thursday consisting of food and hygiene items that were delivered directly to the impacted area.
Velez of Feeding South Florida said his organization on Thursday sent a truckload of supplies donated by the Aldi supermarket chain and a second one from the Seminole Tribe of South Florida. Two other loads were on their way to the Tallahassee area.
Drivers were scheduled to remain for up to five days delivering food locally.
Donations continue to arrive, he said, as “:the community has been with us:during all of the storms that have passed through the state.”
Still, Velez said, they have been “seeing a little bit of a holding off until folks get a better understanding of what we’re going to be as an economy.”
What the future might hold
“Today, unfortunately the median household is earning roughly what they were earning in inflation-adjusted terms prior to the pandemic,” said William Luther, a professor and economist at Florida Atlantic University. “But they haven’t experienced the real wage gains they usually would.”
“It’s not surprising that some households have found it more difficult to make ends meet in such a tumultuous environment,” he added.
Workers have received raises in a variety of occupations ranging from hospitality to transportation as unions have aggressively pursued higher compensation for their members in a labor market where workers have the upper hand. But unionized workers constitute less than 6% of the work force in Florida, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Non-union professionals and others in industries with large numbers of vacancies have lifted their pay by moving from job to job.
Oxfam, the British-founded confederation against poverty, released a “Best and Worst States to Work in America” index late last month that ranked Florida 30th among the 50 states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The survey focused on labor laws that benefit workers from heat safety in outdoor occupations and paid family and medical leave, to the right to organize, to pathways for higher pay. But Florida is a long-time right-to-work state that is not regarded as fertile territory for labor-organizing activity. And proposals for aggressive workplace protections have not been major legislative priorities in Tallahassee.
Kaitlyn Henderson, senior research adviser for Oxfam in Washington, suggested a broader brush is needed to lift the economic fortunes of workers, particularly those who rely on hourly pay rates.
She pointed to the 2020 state constitutional amendment that lifts the minimum wage incrementally until it reaches $15 in September 2026. When the vote occurred the rate was $8.56. It is now at $11 and scheduled to go to $12 on Sept. 30.
“It was a result of the people of Florida asking for one,” she said. “It was a big win we wanted to celebrate, and still celebrate.”
Staff writer David Lyons can be reached at dvlyons@SunSentinel.com
