The Crushing Impact of Inflation on Charlotte’s Underserved Residents

By Valerie Hubbard

The annual inflation rate in the United States accelerated to 8.6 percent in May — the highest since December 1981, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — causing steadily rising prices for basic living essentials including food, housing, utilities, transportation, fuel, family health care and more.

Tina Postel, CEO of Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays preparing boxes of food at a pop-up food share event.

Consequently, thousands of Charlotte residents are struggling economically, and many are experiencing food insecurity — they don’t have reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food due to limited money or other resources.

Thankfully, Charlotte’s Loaves & Fishes emergency food pantries started in 1975 and Friendship Trays Meals on Wheels in 1976. Together their mission was to alleviate food insecurity in Mecklenburg County. Last year, the two organizations merged and officially became: Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays, Inc. (LFFT)— a network of food pantries, home groceries, meal deliveries and hope.

“Loaves & Fishes is the groceries, food pantries side of the operation and Friendship Trays, Charlotte’s primary Meals on Wheels program, delivers nutritional, prepared meals (nine diet types) daily to those who can’t cook for themselves, particularly seniors and homebound people,” explained Tina Postel, CEO of the combined organization.

Through its network of food pantries, LFFT provides a week’s worth of wholesome groceries for clients referred by social service agencies to determine how much food is needed at distributions.

They also have self-register community mobile and mini food pantries, plus pop-up food shares to quickly distribute perishable products for any struggling Mecklenburg County resident. These don’t all supply a week of groceries, but they save households from going hungry.

“We serve many individuals who are gainfully employed,” Postel said, “but their incomes do not cover all their expenses, especially with continually rising costs. Plus, about 46 percent of those we serve are seniors on limited, fixed incomes, and 5 percent are children.

“Since inflation began, we’ve seen an 80 percent annual increase in the number of people needing our help,” said Postel.

“For example, in May 2022, the number of people we served at our full-size pantries — this includes a week's worth of nutritionally balanced groceries including fruit, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy products for every individual in the household — was 7,382, compared to 4,097 people in May 2021. And I don’t see [the situation] getting better,” she said.

A Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays employee is loading a week’s worth of groceries in a person’s car at a food pantry distribution event.

“This is partially due to the increased cost of housing here in Mecklenburg County, increased cost of gasoline for vehicles and rising costs of groceries,” she added. “Plus, the ongoing shortage of workers in Social Service agencies, like the [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program], who are behind in processing applications for grocery vouchers, so people need our services more.”

LFFT is also feeling the steep rise in the cost of buying groceries to distribute, especially meat. “This year alone, we’ve seen a 72 percent increase in the price of ground turkey. It jumped from $1.65 a pound to $2.84 a pound,” Postel said. “And we’re buying meat and food by pallets, so that’s very costly.” Still, in the first half of this year alone, they served 48,324 people.

“But we couldn’t do it without donations and support from our numerous community partners, including Second Harvest Food Bank, which supplies over 35 percent of the food we distribute,” said Postel. They also receive donations from Mecklenburg County Council, Boy Scouts of America, religious organizations and LFFT’s more than 400 annual food drives, she added.

Above: Nicholas Wharton, President and CEO of the Charlotte Area Fund (left), and Bishop Claude R. Alexander of the Park Church in Charlotte serve at the “Big Pop-Up” distribution. Left: Cars line up to receive food and supplies at the “Big Pop-Up” event.

Postel, also a recipient of governmentprovided food assistance when she was growing up, said, “Anyone needing our help, don’t be ashamed to contact us. Just call 704-523-4333 or visit www.loavesandfishes.org.”

Besides food assistance, many Charlotte residents who are struggling economically may need housing, educational, work development or other self-sustaining support.

The Charlotte Area Fund (CAF), a private non-profit corporation and Mecklenburg County’s designated Community Action Agency that was founded in 1963 as a poverty-fighting organization, also helps people experiencing poverty and works to help them become self-sufficient. When the Economic Opportunity Act was passed in 1964, Community Action Agencies were formed to fight the federal “War on Poverty” at local levels. CAF was then selected to serve as the Community Action Agency (CAA) in Mecklenburg County.

Since then, CAF has partnered with neighborhood communities, other nonprofits and for-profit local and national organizations to help Mecklenburg County residents acquire the resources and support they need to get out of poverty.

Nicholas Wharton, CAF president and CEO, has been with the organization since 2019. Before that, he was the chair of North Carolina’s 34 total CAAs, which receives federal funding through the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) and has approximately 1,000 cohorts nationwide.

“Our CAF programs are designed to reduce poverty through education, workforce development, food/nutrition and skill development,” Wharton explained. “By working in collaboration with our cohorts and local community partners, we offer two types of services to impact the lives of low wealth people.

“We provide direct services, such as our workforce development training. Plus, we provide wrap-around support for families—including child care during training, transportation, and housing, food and nutritional support, while they’re learning to achieve self-sufficiency,” he said.

CAF also offers work development training and education in trades, including HVAC, fiber optics, IT, trucking/CDL, entry-level health care and more, he added. “Because of inflation, this year at our recent graduation, we gave each family a $400 grocery voucher and $50 gasoline cards. Plus, we’ve been giving out gas cards all year,” said Wharton.

“And, throughout the covid-19 pandemic, we provided rent/mortgage and utilities support to help struggling families stay in their homes,” he added.

Earlier this year, Wharton briefly spoke at The Park Church’s kickoff dedication and open house celebration of their fully equipped shower, laundry and restroom mobile bus to aid the homeless, which CAF will support.

“Last year, we also partnered with The Park Church and 100 other organizations, including IKEA, one of our largest for-profit corporate sponsors, for our “Big Pop Up” distribution. We filled over 900 people’s car trunks with food, water, personal protective equipment, diapers and other household goods," Wharton said.

“We launched a covid awareness media campaign [this year] with C.W. Williams, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center. It’s to remind people, who are most vulnerable, especially those over 60, to stay covid safe and protected,” Wharton said. “We even created a slogan: ‘Good Health Is Wealth.’”

This fall, CAF will continue to enhance their workforce development training, help people retain housing and do all they can to help people rise out of poverty, he added.

“Since 1963, throughout the covid-19 pandemic and even the inflation crisis, CAF has always been here providing direct, wraparound services for anyone struggling in Charlotte during some of their greatest times of need,” said Wharton. Visit: www.charlotteareafund.org. P