- July 20, 2022
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Economy
More than a thousand miles from Wall Street, Thomas Mantz, president of a Florida food relief organisation called Feeding Tampa Bay, sees US consumers struggling to cope with rising prices for life’s necessities.
Mantz said “food insecurity” is growing once again in his 10-county region of west-central Florida after falling from its coronavirus pandemic peak. Relying on donations of food and cash, his group is serving about 1.65mn free meals a week, compared with 1.25mn before Covid-19, mainly to members of working families.
“Over the last five to six months, with the inflation spike, we are seeing more and more folks accessing our services,” he said. “We regularly see people who have two or three jobs.”
The lines forming for free food in places like Florida are complicating the debate raging over the direction of the US economy as the Federal Reserve lifts interest rates in the hopes of taming inflation without pushing the country…
