One in eight U.S. households, or 12.5%, was food insecure in 2022, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up from 10.2% in 2021 and 10.5% in 2020. Feeding San Diego's no-cost grocery store is just one way the nonprofit is trying to help.
“That breaks my heart that it’s not surprising to me,” Serene Jneid-Ruparelia, the assistant manager of direct services at Feeding San Diego, told NBC 7 about the USDA's statistic. “A lot of choices our neighbors have to face is, ‘Do I get gas or do I get food for my family?”
Jneid-Ruparelia oversees the organization’s no-cost market in Sorrento Valley. It is a small, one or two-shopper-at-a-time store where people can get fresh produce and pantry staples once each month.
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“I think it was very hard for many people to get on their feet after the pandemic,” she said. “I don’t think it really, like, it didn’t just end.”
Jneid-Ruparelia explained that the marketplace used to see around 90 shoppers every day in the beginning of the month. Then, that number would dwindle to around 55 toward the end of the month. But, she said, “now we’re consistently serving 80, 90 every single day.”
“Everyone still has trouble making ends meet,” Jneid-Ruparelia said. “Being food insecure is not who you are, it’s just something you’re experiencing.”
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About a third of single-mother families experience food insecurity, according to the USDA. It is the group with the highest rate, followed by Black households at 22% and Hispanic households at 21%.
“Everything is so expensive. The rent, the bills, you know, the electric, everything,” Marian Adlo told NBC 7.
Adlo has been shopping at the Feeding San Diego marketplace for the past five months and said, “It helps, like, not that much, but at least it helps.”
She has four sons, two of whom are old enough to work and help contribute to rent, but she said the cost of groceries has been difficult to keep up with.
“When you go to the grocery, $100 is like just a small bag,” she said.
The Feeding San Diego marketplace is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Shoppers are able to make appointments online or walk up and wait for the next available shopping slot.
