Schuster’s Blog: Inflation, grandfamilies, and SNAP

Families with limited resources are being squeezed on all sides.

• Overall inflation has slowed yet food prices increased over the past year for different foods/categories of food (https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/10/business/grocery-prices/index.html) and many companies raise prices and reap profits (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/business/food-prices-profits.html).
• Vegetables: 90% increase in cost compared to November 2021 due to drought, the cost of water (https://www.fooddive.com/news/drought-vegetable-prices-80-percent-increase/638461/). There’s a new report about grandfamilies, EBT SNAP theft (and how to avoid it), expensive fast food/food delivery and the connection between TikTok and school lunch debt.

Grandfamilies…

• Seniors raising children (grandfamilies) are twice as food insecure as older adults that don’t have children they are raising (https://www.feedwm.org/2022/01/grandfamilies-grow-in-number-and-challenges/); a new report/infographic and other resources about the nutrition, health and well-being of grandfamilies (https://www.gu.org/resources/state-of-grandfamilies-report-2022/).
• Grandfamilies: search laws by state, resources and more (https://www.grandfamilies.org/).
• Nutrition programs for grandfamilies: a 3 page fact sheet  (https://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/FRAC_FNP-GrandFam_FactSheet1.pdf).

EBT SNAP theft…

• Thieves are stealing EBT SNAP benefits electronically and there’s no reimbursement (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/thieves-are-stealing-snap-funds-electronically-states-victims-never-ge-rcna60172).
• How to protect yourself from theft (https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/snap-food-stamps-scams/).
• New law proposed to help fraud victims but would not be retroactive (https://www.wmar2news.com/matterformallory/new-federal-legislation-would-replace-snap-benefits-for-fraud-victims).

$$ 2022 fast food and food delivery…

• Which fast food raised prices the most in 2022? Wendy’s  (https://www.tastingtable.com/1134814/data-suggest-wendys-had-the-highest-fast-food-price-hike-of-2022/).
• 2022 fast food that got the most expensive (https://thetakeout.com/wendys-chick-fil-a-taco-bell-more-expensive-in-2022-1849882911).
• How much does a food delivery app cost you? At a minimum $19 more than the same meal in a restaurant based on April 2022 data from the largest 100 cities/metro areas. (https://www.self.inc/info/most-expensive-cities-for-food-delivery-apps/).

School lunch debt…

• As free school meals end in most schools, school lunch debt is an increasing problem. TikTok to the rescue! (https://www.newsweek.com/woman-pays-off-overdue-school-lunch-accounts-tiktok-video-1757453).