search
Donate

News

Already strained from years of high inflation, food banks and pantries brace for worse with the outbreak of a trade war

By:
Posted on:

< < Back to

ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB/Report for America) — When prices go up, more people struggle to pay for food. That’s the lesson the last three years have taught the Southeast Ohio Foodbank.

Shelves at the Southeast Ohio Foodbanks warehouse in Logan are almost entirely empty
The Southeast Ohio Foodbank has been struggling to keep its shelves stocked since the summer of 2022. The cuts proposed in the Senate’s draft budget may worsen the shortage. [Max Brunke | WOUB]
Demand has been up significantly since food prices first surged in 2022. It went up again after pandemic-era SNAP allotments ended in 2023. Now, back-and-forth tariffs between the United States and its largest trading partners are threatening to cause another spike.

“Historically, as food prices increase, we see an increased need for assistance at the food bank and throughout our pantry partners,” said HAPCAP Development Director Eva Bloom.

The problem extends throughout Ohio, according to Ohio Association of Foodbanks Executive Director Joree Novotny.

“From July through December of 2024 — we served more individual food pantry visits in those six months than we ever had in any six-month period in our 35-year history,” Novotny said.

The supply of emergency food has not kept up. As a result, Bloom said, pantries have been giving out smaller and smaller portions in an effort to ensure no one leaves empty-handed.

According to Bloom, most people treat food pantries as a “last line of defense” when facing food insecurity. If they can’t get what they need at a pantry, it’s not clear they can get it at all. That means they probably can’t afford other important things, too. For example, a survey last year found over half of food pantry visitors have had to choose between food and medication. Almost as many had to choose between food and rent, suggesting a link between food prices and homelessness.

Novotny said the trade war now underway — with the U.S. imposing tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico and those countries responding in kind — will almost certainly worsen the situation.

“Our food supply chain is highly local and highly global, highly interconnected,” Novotny said.

“So yes, we will see impacts to our farmers and those that are involved in supplying our food, which ultimately leads to fallout for consumers.”

For example: Say a farmer buys Canadian fertilizer. The new tariffs may raise the cost of importing that fertilizer. The farmer’s cost inputs will go up, and consumers will likely pay the price.

Athens County Food Pantry President Karin Bright, who also owns a farm, agreed the tariffs will be costly.

“Any time we see tariffs, obviously that raises prices,” Bright said. “In the case of Mexico, that’s definitely gonna hit fruits and vegetables. That’s gonna be a problem.”

She added, “Any rise in prices, whether it’s food, whether it’s for other services, whether it’s for things like laundry detergent, toilet paper, you name it — any time we see an increase in prices on anything, it definitely unduly impacts people who are at a lower socioeconomic level.”