Food costs hit home: Utahns are struggling to cope with skyrocketing prices

Record-high gas prices are detouring school custodian Fabian Hernandez to the food line.

"Gas prices are so high, I can't get food," the veteran of the Vietnam and Gulf wars said last week as he lined up outside Hildegarde's Pantry in downtown Salt Lake for emergency food help. "That's why I'm here today."

Many Utahns have seen skyrocketing prices for gasoline and food staples make a dent in their wallets.

"I went grocery shopping yesterday. Are you kidding? It killed me," said Cynthia Millar, a Murray mother of five who budgets about $650 for food each month. "I spent $750 yesterday — and I didn't buy any meat. That's for the month."

Some people are altering budgets and habits to make ends meet. But it appears more and more Utahns have no place else to cut.

The Utah Food Bank's 2-1-1 hotline this year has taken double the calls for food assistance than it did in the first quarter of 2007. Crossroads Urban Center served 44 percent more families last month than it did the same time a year ago. For Hildegarde's Pantry, a ministry of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, that number increased nearly 50 percent.

Utahns also spent a record $13 million in food stamps in March.

Wasatch Front food prices jumped 3 percent between February and March. But this is no locals-only problem. Globally, food prices have risen 57 percent in the past year, driven by huge increases in staples such as corn, wheat and rice. The prices of cereals are up 88 percent, those of dairy products have increased 48 percent, and costs of oils and fats have risen 107 percent, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.

Reasons for the price hikes are interrelated and complex in our global food market. They include increased demand, especially from developing countries such as China and India, where a growing middle class can now afford to drive and put more food on the table — particularly meat. At the same time, food supplies are down because of drought in Australia, one of the world's largest wheat producers. And the skyrocketing price of oil, fueled by a declining dollar, have raised commodity prices.

"The total impact of these rising food prices is much bigger than people realize, especially when it's in combination with the cost of every other basic necessity going up," said Bill Tibbitts, Crossroads Urban Center's anti-hunger advocacy project coordinator.

How did we get here?