In the city’s hungriest borough, rising food
prices lead to a pay-or-pantry dilemma
BRONX TIMES R 8 REPORTER, MAR. 4-10, 2022 BTR
Photo Adrian Childress
BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
While the price of meat,
poultry, fi sh and eggs prices
have soared roughly 16%
since last year, it hasn’t deterred
the customers of Morris
Park’s Big Deal Foodtown
from checking those items out
on cashier Christina Nellis’
conveyor belt.
“I think people are willing
to pay whatever price if it’s an
essential item, and may leave
stuff like chocolate cake behind,
if they can bring home
meat for dinner,” said Nellis.
“But as the prices go up, so
does the complaining, so it’s a
give and take.”
Overall grocery prices
soared 6.5% in 2021, marking
the biggest increase in 13
years and it’s just another uptick
in prices caused by recordhigh
infl ation in the United
States. Rising food prices, analysts
say, are driven by supply
chain disruptions and increased
demand for goods.
But in the Bronx, which is
the city’s “hungriest borough”
with 1 in 4 residents experiencing
food insecurity — rising
food prices is another hurdle
to overcome for struggling
families.
“We’re kind of priced out
of the packaged meats, so
you gotta start looking at the
canned meats and the SPAMs
to get by,” said Gloria Rodriguez,
a South Bronx native
who regularly shops at CTown
Supermarket on Southern
Boulevard. “I’ve got eight
mouths to feed, not including
my own, and making minimum
wage, it’s heartbreaking
that I can’t afford to give my
family a steak or chicken dinner
every night.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics divides their food
price index into six categories
and calculated their rising
costs since the beginning
of the 2022: meats, poultry, fi sh
and eggs (+16%); cereals and
bakery products (+8.6%); nonalcoholic
beverages and beverage
material (+6.6%); other
food at home (+5.8%); dairy
(+3.8%); and fruits and vegetables
(+1.2).
Analysts attribute the
jump in meat prices to a
shellshocked meatpacking
industry that endured COVID
driven plant shutdowns,
safety protocols to space out
crammed employees, and labor
shortages that reduced the
number of cows these plants
could process.
Moreso, cattle farmers
saw less money for their herd,
while the cost of the end product
spiked for consumers.
Agricultural economists
say that pandemic-stoked
meat demand, especially
in beef, led to a shortage of
slaughterhouse capacity, a
supply-chain problem not foreign
to other industries. It’s
also not aided by an industry
dominated by four global companies
— Tyson Foods Inc.,
JBS, Marfrig Global Foods
and Seaboard Corp. — who all
saw their margins triple during
the pandemic, according
to a December report from the
Biden administration.
The Biden administration
argues that those companies
are responsible for squeezing
consumers and fueling infl ation,
and facilitated the Biden-
Harris team to develop an
action plan to ward off anticompetitive
practices and
price-gouging through a $1
billion investment in new independent
processing plants,
$100 million for worker training,
and new rules and ways
for farmers to report anticompetitive
practices.
And local chains also feel
the sting of a monopolized
meat market, as multiple grocery
stores in the Mott Haven,
Parkchester and Throggs
Neck section of the Bronx said
that meat industry executives
have made unilateral moves
to drive up prices for years.
But in the aisles of some
Bronx supermarkets, consumers
aren’t balking yet at
paying a little more for those
chicken nuggets.
“Some people are going
to be more price-conscious,