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UNIONDALE _____________
HERALD BEACON
April 4, 2024
Aiming to be more positive
A winner in more than one language
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Page 10 $1.00 FREE
APRIL 4 - 10, 2024
It’s Easter time at the community center again By BRANDON CRUZ bcruz@liherald.com
Brandon Cruz/Herald
Volunteers from Long Island Community Soccer, who helped organize and run the event, were star-struck by the Easter Bunny.
On a sunny day-before-Easter, the Uniondale Community Center was transformed by a holiday celebration into a hub of laughter, creativity and delicious treats, offering participants a range of activities that kept them happily entertained. No Easter celebration would be complete without an egg hunt, and this one had children eagerly searching every nook and cranny of the field behind the community center. With treats and surprises, the event brought an element of thrill and adventure to the day, creating ContInuEd on pagE 4
Uniondale shoppers coping with higher grocery bills By BRANDON CRUZ bcruz@liherald.com
It is no secret that the financial impact of inflation is being felt across the country. B u t m a ny re s i d e n t s o f Uniondale, who were struggling to make ends meet before the pandemic, are now in crisis mode, as their financial situations have worsened. A c c o r d i n g t o t h e U. S . Bureau of Labor Statistics and economic data from the Federal Reserve, the average prices of food and beverages are roughly 22 to 25 percent higher now than they were four years ago, at the start of the pandem-
ic — and families in this community are feeling it. Recent inflation is often attributed to the pandemic, which brought about massive shortages and caused prices to skyrocket. But since then, corporations have been reporting recordbreaking numbers, with corporate profits now accounting for the highest share of national income in more than 10 years, according to the National Bureau of Economic Analysis. “Pandemic-era supply chain disruptions enabled corporations to hike prices and juice profit margins to highs not seen in more than 60 years,”
Kitty Richards, director of Groundwork Collaborative, an economic research and advocacy group, wrote in an analysis. “ N ow s u p p ly ch a i n s h ave returned to normal, but corporations in many sectors are still charging inflated prices and extracting exorbitant profit margins.” A l t h o u g h Wa l m a r t h a s recently announced that it plans to restore some pre-inflation prices in its food aisles, consumers — many of whom say they are spending up to twice as much as they did before the pandemic on groceries — want to see this happen sooner rather than later. Espe-
cially in Uniondale, whose residents rely heavily on the connected ShopRite and Walmart supercenter in town for supplies and groceries. Uniondale resident Harix Linares told the Herald during a trip to the supercenter last Saturday that he has seen the biweekly grocery bill for his family of six expand from roughly $600 to well over $1,200.
“Thank God I’m in a financial position where I can afford this change,” Linares said. “But I know for a lot of other families, this is a really hard time for them.” And it is, as most other shoppers confir med. Mary Jane Santos, a single mother and a customer of ShopRite in Uniondale, said that she had ContInuEd on pagE 2