This post was originally published on Word In Black.
By: Jennifer Porter Gore
If you’re wondering why you seem to have to take out a small loan to shop at the supermarket, you’re not imagining it. Food prices, which have skyrocketed due to inflation during the pandemic, are still simply too high, and the federal government suspects that food manufacturers may be involved in lucrative price gouging.
But for black consumers, decades of redlining, divestment and racially motivated urban planning have made the financial burden at the supermarket checkout even greater.
Experts say that on average, black households pay disproportionately higher prices at the checkout than whites, have few opportunities to bargain hunt in food deserts, and have less access to fresh, nutritious food. Combined with chronically high inflation following the pandemic and ongoing price spikes from food producers, black households are at greater risk of food insecurity than whites, they say.
Although whites make up the majority of the population in the U.S. experiencing food insecurity, “food insecurity rates among Blacks and Latinos exceed those among whites nationwide,” says a report by the nonprofit Feeding America. “These disparities are an example of how historical, social, economic and environmental factors have held many communities of color back and created barriers to food security.”
At the same time, the Federal Trade Commission recently announced it would investigate the high food prices that are putting a strain on black household budgets. The investigation came on the heels of a March FTC report that questioned why prices continue to rise despite what FTC Chair Lina Kahn this month called the commercial food industry’s “enormous profits.”
Researchers say that for decades, Black households have consistently been twice as likely to experience food insecurity as white households, and that trend continued in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. More than one in five Black families experienced hunger, compared to about one in 10 white households.
Several factors contribute to this inequality, including lower household incomes, higher unemployment rates, and the seemingly persistent presence of food deserts – neighborhoods where residents have limited access to healthy, affordable foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables.
Instead of supermarkets or full-range grocery stores, residents of food deserts must rely on convenience stores, bodegas, or discount stores to buy their groceries. Instead of fresh produce, these stores are more likely to stock limited quantities of highly processed foods, packaged meats, sodas, and salty snacks—and sell them at inflated prices—than stores in wealthier areas.
The lack of nutritious foods in food deserts contributes to higher rates of diet-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure – health problems that particularly affect black people.
This helps explain why Black consumers’ spending on groceries is expected to increase every year between 2021 and 2030, according to a report by the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility, a nonprofit policy center.
“Supermarket redlining – the reluctance of large grocery chains to open or maintain stores in low-income neighborhoods that are disproportionately black – limits choice and drives up the prices of available foods,” the report said.
“Counties with higher-than-average black populations tend to have more convenience stores and fewer fresh food options than counties with lower-than-average black populations,” the report says. “In these counties, there are about 1.2 convenience stores for every convenience store in a county with lower-than-average black population.”
The federal government is working with several states and nonprofit organizations to end hunger in America.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration launched the Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities with the goal of eliminating food insecurity. In June, Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman, both Democrats from Pennsylvania, introduced bills that would expand access to free or reduced-price meals for children. And the city of Minneapolis made food insecurity part of its development plan for the city’s future.
Meanwhile, the FTC wants to know why food prices are still high even though costs in the supermarket sector have fallen and supply chains have improved. “We want to make sure that large companies do not abuse their power to drive up prices for American families at the supermarket,” says the FTC’s Khan.
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