Facts & Information

Grocery prices remain elevated, making it harder for many families to afford healthy meals. Meal planning, shopping sales and reducing food waste can help stretch a tight food budget. Budget-friendly staples such as beans, rice, oats, eggs and frozen vegetables offer good nutrition at a lower cost. Food assistance programs and local food banks can provide critical support during difficult times. Terre Haute Catholic Charities Foodbank helps individuals and families in the Wabash Valley access nutritious food when they need it most.

Each summer, the school bells go silent, the buses stop running and for millions of children the meals stop coming, too. For kids who rely on free or reduced-price school lunches, summer break is a long, hot, difficult gap between the last meal of the school year and the first one of the next.

Grocery bills that once felt manageable have crept and climbed into genuinely painful territory. Rent eats a larger share of every paycheck. Health insurance premiums are spiking for the third straight year. And wages, for most workers, haven't come close to keeping up. The affordability crisis that politicians debated for years is no longer a future threat. It's the present reality for your neighbors, your coworkers and the families quietly stretching every dollar just to get through the week.