Inflation Hits Close to Home

By Sujata Khandelwal
Central New York-With the economic slowdown leaving few untouched and the United States wrestling with the worst food inflation in seventeen years, low-income residents of central New York are making some tough choices just to put food on the table.

“Taking it one day at a time.”
Single mom, Deborah Wrightson, never thought she would have to make a decision between eating or heating her two-bedroom home. “I have to turn the heat off and my son says ‘Mom, I’m cold,’ and I say I know honey, but it’s expensive,” said Wrightson. Wrightson and her son Anthony are among hundreds of central New Yorkers trying to survive a struggling economy. According to a recent article on MSNBC, overall food prices this year have soared 5 percent as compared with the average 2.5 percent annual rise for the last fifteen years.

Local Organizations
For central New York families, who cannot continue to absorb the rising cost of groceries, there are several organizations lending a helping hand. The Food Bank of Central New York sponsors a food pantry everyday at various locations in the region. Pastor Claire Pietra of Valley Worship Church organizes a food pantry at least once a week. She notices many more people coming to the pantries. “More people are using food pantries as supplemental foods rather than emergency food. Much more people are in a crisis all the time,” she said. The Samaritan Center in downtown Syracuse prepares hot meals everyday, and it, too, is serving many more people than usual.

Feeling the Pinch
Many residents in Syracuse are finding it difficult to even afford simple basic items. Eveanne Davis recently visited a food pantry for the first time. “I stopped buying the eggs, and I don’t buy the milk, and I only buy things I have to buy, the necessities,” she said. Jalica Housely is a widow living on social security. She cannot recall a more difficult time. “This is the hardest for me. It’s very hard for me right now. Like, I said, I manage though,” she said.

Although many in Syracuse continue to struggle, and perhaps wouldn’t survive without food pantries and the good will of volunteer agencies, it’s the help from above that get them through one day at a time.