When the Grocery Bill Becomes a Crisis: How Rising Food Prices Are Hitting Long Island Families Hardest

May 2026 | The Jane Guido Foundation

Most of us have felt it at the checkout line. A cart that used to cost $150 now rings up at $200 or more. We wince, we adjust, maybe we put something back. But for thousands of families right here on Long Island, that moment at the register isn’t an inconvenience — it’s a turning point. Do they buy food, or pay rent? Fill a prescription, or feed the kids?

At the Jane Guido Foundation, we see this reality every single day. And right now, as spring turns to summer, we feel compelled to speak plainly about what is happening in our communities — and why your support has never mattered more.

The Numbers Behind the Struggle

Food prices across the New York metropolitan area have risen more than 25% since 2019. For lower-income households, the burden is even more severe: families earning less than $15,000 a year are now spending nearly 70% of their income on food — a staggering figure that leaves almost nothing left for everything else life demands.

And new pressures are compounding old ones. Tariffs on imported goods — from canned staples to fresh produce to coffee — are pushing grocery costs even higher in 2026. Beef, fruits, vegetables, and seafood have all seen significant price increases tied directly to trade policy. At the same time, federal funding cuts have strained the programs that families depend on most. The Local Food Purchase Assistance program, which helped supply food banks and local pantries, has had its funding canceled. SNAP benefits — the last line of defense for millions — face proposed reductions that could leave families with even less.

For Long Island specifically, many support groups have been sounding the alarm: when tariffs raise the price of canned goods, grains, and packaged food, food banks pay more for the same items, meaning every donated dollar buys less. The shelves that families count on become harder to keep stocked.

“Working” Doesn’t Mean “Fed”

One of the most painful misconceptions about food insecurity is that it only affects people who are unemployed or somehow outside the mainstream of working life. The truth is far more complicated — and far more common.

Nearly half of households seeking emergency food assistance on Long Island include at least one working adult. These are our neighbors: the home health aide, the warehouse worker, the restaurant prep cook. They are employed. They are trying. And they are still going hungry, because Long Island’s cost of living leaves precious little margin for error.

This spring, as we head into the summer months, the pressure intensifies for families with school-age children. During the school year, millions of kids rely on free and reduced-price school meals as a nutritional safety net. When school lets out, that net disappears. Families must suddenly cover three meals a day, seven days a week, for every child at home — often without any increase in income to match.

It is one of the quieter crises of every summer, and it falls hardest on the families least equipped to absorb it.

What Jane Guido Knew

Jane Guido built her legacy on a simple but radical belief: that no one in our community should go without the basics. Not food. Not clothing. Not dignity.

She didn’t wait for conditions to improve before helping. She helped because conditions weren’t good enough. That principle guides everything we do at the Foundation that carries her name — and it guides us especially now, when the gap between what families need and what they can afford is widening by the week.

Our food assistance partnerships with local pantries, our clothing distributions, and our Emergency Support Fund exist precisely for moments like this one. Not for some abstract future crisis, but for the family that is struggling right now, in May, in Suffolk County, wondering how to get through the week.

How You Can Help Right Now

The need is real, it is local, and it is urgent. Here is how you can be part of the solution:

Donate. Every contribution to the Jane Guido Foundation goes directly toward food assistance, clothing distribution, and emergency support for Long Island families in need. In a climate where food costs are rising for everyone — including food banks — your financial gift stretches further than you might think, because we stretch every dollar as far as it will go.

Organize a food drive. Shelf-stable items like canned proteins, pasta, rice, and peanut butter are always in high demand. If you work for a company, belong to a church, coach a team, or are part of any community group, consider organizing a collection this spring.

Join us at our Annual Golf Outing on August 25, 2026 at Baiting Hollow Golf Club. It’s a wonderful day, a great cause, and the funds raised go directly back into the communities we serve. Purchase tickets here.

Spread the word. Food insecurity on Long Island is largely invisible because it exists behind closed doors and quiet pride. The more people understand that hunger looks like a working family, a grandmother on a fixed income, a child waiting for September — the more our community will rise to meet it.

The grocery store has become a place of real anxiety for too many of our neighbors. At the Jane Guido Foundation, we refuse to let that anxiety become despair. We are here — as Jane always was — as the silent support behind your communities.

Thank you for standing with us.

To donate or learn more, visit janeguidofoundation.org. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates.