Rising food prices are making people cut down on their expenses. Interestingly, it is not only the poor who are facing the problem, but also the well-off families from the middle class who are looking at their wallets with worry.
Apart from skyrocketing prices of oil and energy, the costs of food rose considerably in the past year. We now pay 25 percent more for eggs, 15 percent for bread, 100 percent for flour and 68 percent for rice. Also the products imported from Poland are significantly more expensive, which can be attributed to the weakening dollar.
“Our prices have gone up by approximately 30 to 40 percent. The highest cost jump can be observed in dairy products such as milk, butter, yoghurt, cheese,” says Mira Zarzycka from Adam’s Delicatessen at Nassau Ave. in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
The people interviewed by Nowy Dziennik said they resort to different strategies trying to manage living on the budgets whose purchasing power is shrinking. “I do not pay attention to quality any more. I buy only what I can afford,” says Karolina S., an employee at a Polish-owned company. Others give up certain products altogether and now rarely put fish or meat on their table. The number of Poles living in the New York metro area, who reaches out for assistance offered by the government and charitable organizations, is steadily growing.
“We have observed an increase in the number of people coming to ask for food stamps,” says Bozena Nowak from POMOC [Polonians Organized to Minister to Our Community, whose acronym means HELP in Polish], a nonprofit human service agency located in Maspeth. Demand for the bags of free groceries which POMOC distributes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, is also growing. “Up until recently, we hardly saw Poles among our patrons. Now, more and more of them are showing up for a bag of free food. Apparently, the circumstances have forced them to overcome the psychological barrier Poles usually were guarded by when it comes to asking for help,” said Nowak.
According to Joel Berg, executive director of Coalition Against Hunger, these days employment does not guarantee the ability to feed oneself and one’s family, something which was unheard of before. In the past, only in marginal cases such as people who could not hold a job relied on welfare. Today the problem concerns those members of our society who are still employed.”
One in six New Yorkers now regularly reaches out for help offered by 1200 charitable organizations, such as food pantries or soup kitchens. That is a total of 1.3 million people, including 417,000 children, who are not able to secure a substantial meal on their own. This represents a 20 percent increase from two years ago.
