needs, but food banks are having to go to great lengths to problem-solve around the challenges we re seeing. some of the challenges we re seeing in the supply chain and with the elevated food prices include a decline in donated food. where some of the food that normally comes to us is moving to the secondary market, because it s more profitable for it to be there. we re also just, as you mentioned, seeing immense pressure on the cost of doing business. so food banks, a lot of folks don t realize, have to pay to move, even donated food across the country. so our transportation costs are up about 20%. labor costs are up. then the only way we were able to get through the pandemic thus far is through purchasing food. we purchased about 60% more food last year and so what food banks are doing, substituting items. in some cases having to diminish some portion sizes just to make sure they can meet all the need. hmm. so you know, when you say that you know, food prices
attention, but, yes. funds help immensely right now and people can go to feedingamerica.org to make a donation to their local food bank. again the only way we ve been able to get through these elevated levels of demand is through purchasing food and through the u.s. commodity food combined with the donated food we are able to receive. hmm. we re glad to be able to help get the word out, because clearly the need is great and getting greater every day. katie fitzgerald, thank you so much and thanks for all you re doing on behalf of so many who have been leaning on you. thank you so much. all right. the top ten cnn heroes of 2021 have been announced, and one of whom will be named the cnn hero of the year by you. so in the last week of voting, let us re-introduce another of our incredible top ten. when the covid-19 pandemic struck the island of bali, tourism, driving economic force and region practically came to a halt and thousands left out of
companies, but they couldn t give us as much as they could historically. so we needed to buy about nine to ten times of food, and thankfully donors gave us the money to do that with, but it s a daunting thing to think about a week where maybe we spent 15,000 purchasing food the year before and we spent $1 million of food in a week we didn t expect to. but expenses went up, too. all operating costs went up. and this supply chain matter is very real when you have to think about where you re getting your food. john, thank you as well as people across america trying to keep people fed. in just seconds we re going to release brand new polling data about president biden s job performance. plus representative ayanna pressley is with us to discuss
these are from 2020, and things have changed, as you said. but 10.5% of u.s. households are what we call food insecure, about 13.8 million people, and these may be outdated. tell me what you mean by food insecurity in the richest population in the world. there is no access to food whatsoever in some areas, and people don t make enough for the whole month, so they need supplemental for part of the month. that s the gap we fill, and some other agencies like access will fill gaps. it s not a 100% lack of food. where do you get your food from? do you purchase it, or is it
inflation. you re worried about feeding people. your costs are grown dramatically but the audience you serve has not increased. actually, our audience has increased. we saw about a 60% increase of need here in indiana, but we were able to increase it about 30% from 2020, and your cost is very reflective of the reality in terms of cost, and people may not realize we offer a fleet of box trucks and even the diesel is substantial on us. what do you do about this, john? it s obvious everything you re saying to me, but for those of us who don t think about this on a daily basis, for those of us who are not food insecure, we re not clear how this affects you. what do you need to happen to address these inflationary costs? well, we obviously need financial and other support in all 200 feed america food banks,