The numerous of monthly bills are taking a toll on the health of local San Diegans.
A recent report by the San Diego Hunger Coalition says that 1 in 4 San Diego locals struggled to afford the right amount of food needed to keep a healthy lifestyle.
That is nearly 1 million people in San Diego.
The coalition believes that the largest reason for this is due to the high energy and housing bills, unlivable wages, and other factors.
In the same report, it becomes clear that more families are finding it harder to buy today than they did over two years ago before the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on the whole world.
Anahid Brakke, the president and CEO of the San Diego Hunger Coalition, a nonprofit collaborative organization, says that although wages have been somewhat increasing over the years, it has not been on par with the increase of gas prices along the way, nor with the increase of food prices since the rise of the pandemic.
“Wages are going in the right direction, but they’re not going up by 25 percent, like gas. And they haven’t gone up 20 percent, like the cost of food over the past two years,” said Anahid Brakke, the president and CEO of the San Diego Hunger Coalition.
Casey Castillo, the CEO of the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, says that this is a result of the on-going spikes in national inflation, which ultimately impacts low-income and under-privileged families even more.
“This report accurately identifies the heightened need that we continue to see at our food distributions in communities throughout the county,” Castillo said. “The level of nutrition insecurity remains persistently high in our region due to the lasting impacts of the pandemic and record-high inflation that continue to impact struggling, low-income families.”
“As soon as one piece of the pie starts taking up more space, it’s always the food budget that gets squished,” Castillo added.
