I'm Elizabeth has and welcome to our live conversation. Today, we're talking about inflation and the impact it is having on our food. In the tri state area, food prices rose more than 8% and this impacts not only our wallets, but for many of us also the quality of the food that we're eating. The rise in prices have been one of the most difficult and most visible aspects of inflation for so many of our households. So many people have had to cut back on what they are buying at the grocery store. So today we're joined by Maggie Lyon. She's from the University of New Haven School of Health Sciences. She's *** registered dietician with experience in community education and in patient clinical, medical nutrition therapy. More than 15 years of experience in restaurants and cafe operations. Now, do you remember we want to hear from you for the next half hour, we'll answer your questions. You can also put your comments in there. You submit them now under the live stream of the show on our Facebook pages. So, Maggie, when we take *** look at um inflation and the impact, it's having one of the things that comes to mind is the price of eggs. And I feel as though, you know, it used to be when you would gather with people, you might talk about the weather, you might talk about sports. But now we're really talking about our grocery bills because, uh, it seems to be affecting everyone. Uh, uh, you know, across the country, everyone is feeling this even myself who thinks eggs are the nutritional gold standard and they're so easy to prepare. I even find myself talking about making egg dishes in this economy. So, yes, that is definitely *** prevailing thought. And I think everyone along the spectrum is really feeling this squeeze. All right, let's talk about the price of groceries. I took *** look in the tri-state and, um, you know, obviously we know egg prices have soared more than 70%. That's uh across the country. Um But that's not the only thing that we're seeing going up. We take *** look at things like butter and margarine. Those numbers also increasing butter up more than 26% margarine, more than 44%. You've got flour also jumping. So even if you try to make your own food at home, it's still going to cost you so much money. That's correct. Yes. And that's something that I think if people have those skills, it's really wonderful and it makes um cooking and eating so much more affordable. But again, this is *** situation that is totally across the board with generalized commodities. Right. So let's talk at chicken prices went up more than 10%. And then the other thing we have is fruit, fruits and veggies, which we've just started to see *** little bit of *** drop in, but overall costing so much money. So how do we make decisions that can keep our family healthy? So, I think *** lot of it has to do with just being *** smart shopper and planning. The more planning we can do up front, the better off we are to be *** smarter consumer in terms of like finding coupons, shopping, sales, things of that nature where we're looking at circulars. Um buying, buying meat on sale is always *** great tip that I would tell my patients and clients things of that nature that really help to make our dollar go *** long way. But it really is about doing that homework upfront and spending just that extra amount of time to be *** smart savvy shopper. And if I am doing that, are you saying like then I should be freezing more items? Oh, yeah, great point. So yes, if if you have the capability to buy the like let's say on sale, especially cuts of meat, like especially affordable cuts of meat and then you have the ability to freeze those for *** later date. That is such *** great economical way to provide great sources of protein and or fruits and vegetables. That same thing applies when you find something on sale or even some shops have the um that sort of like day old bruised, like the ugly Betty rack kind of thing. I always recommend utilizing those as well and you can freeze *** lot of that produce especially bananas or, you know, if you can make value added products like maybe apple sauce or something like that, if you have the capability time facilities and skill to kind of break those things down. Yeah, I also want to talk about food insecurity for *** moment. You know, according to the USDA, more than 34 million people that includes nine million Children in the US are food insecure. Obviously, we know that the pandemic increased that food insecurity among so many families and Children and communities. But we, we take *** look at the benefits and we know next month *** lot of them are going to see some big changes. Absolutely. Um And food insecurity is *** rising issue within this country. I think that COVID um it really illuminated that to *** large degree. Um And really it's about finding access for people who do feel food insecure. And that could mean that someone has *** inability to meet like their energetic needs, those basic needs. It could mean practically speaking that you don't know where your next meal is coming from. You've been you like skip meals because you can't afford them things of that nature, you skip meals because, you know, you're trying to provide for your family. Now there is, you know, sometimes there are like great barriers to access in terms of government, um government programs like snap and wick, you know, there are economic cutoffs for that. So if you do qualify, I highly recommend beginning that process. Absolutely. Um, short of that though, and you still find yourself going hungry in secure, not knowing where your food is going to be coming from. It's it's imperative to begin research into local food pantries and supplemental food programs, especially for individuals and individuals with families. Yeah, I want to take *** look specific um to our region at some of the numbers. So first we're gonna take *** look in New York. One in 10 people face hunger and one in seven Children, face hunger. Taking *** look in New Jersey. It's one in 14 people, one in 11 Children and in Connecticut, it's one in 10 people and one in eight Children. And it's just staggering to see just how many people are hungry in the tribe state. It's not *** very visible issue. And unfortunately, there's *** lot of stigma and shame surrounding this that prevents people from getting the access they need and making that first phone call or asking or talking amongst their peers about how to generate better food security for themselves and their families. Now again, as *** result of COVID, we had many more like local and state websites, especially that had greater visibility in terms of how to access food banks, food pantries, mobile food pantries, subsidized programs that really could, um, you could move on it in anonymity essentially. But really it is ***, it's *** major issue and it was again throughout COVID because kids weren't in school, they're missing out on that meal, *** meal that they depended on. And so we now have at least greater visibility on these state and town websites that give resources and oftentimes, towns and states will have ***, *** very um outlined list of places where folks can go and get that supplemental food that they themselves and their families need. Yeah. And to that point, you know, when last year the school lunch was free. Now this year in uh in schools it's no longer free. And in the survey that was released this month by the school Nutrition Association, 96.3% of school districts reported that meal debt had increased and that median debt was more than $5000 per district. You know, this, I think this, it speaks to *** larger problem. Absolutely. We clearly have *** need to subsidize school lunches at the, at the very least on top of perhaps like providing school breakfast. I know that certain states around the country. Of course, this isn't happening now like, you know, nationally and this could be county by county, but some places are providing free breakfast and free lunch for this exact reason. Yeah, absolutely. I know there was also this survey that took *** look at what the kids were eating and *** third of Children were, uh, one, ages, 1 to 5 did not eat *** daily fruit and nearly half did not eat *** daily vegetable. Yes. I think the, the war goes on in terms of trying to have kids eat their vegetables, but it's certainly not going to happen, happen if we don't provide them in the first place. And some of that like immediate access that they have to fruits and vegetables is through *** school lunch program. Right. Absolutely. Right. Coming up next, we are gonna, um, talk about the effect this is having on seniors as well and some of their dietary needs. But I also want to let you know that up right now on news 12 dot com, we do have food resources. We can help you find the food banks or food programs that are in your specific area. So, what you're going to do is you're going to see *** QR code on your screen, take your phone right up to the QR code and that will get you right to the specific area on our website to, you know, connect you with the information you need. And do, remember we want to hear from you.