Food basket prices jumped 9% in 2 years, report says

The Common Front for Social Justice is trying to come up with ways to help poor people handle rising food prices.

The social justice group spent the past two years surveying prices at 31 grocery stores across the province.

They tallied the prices on the 67 items that Health Canada says make up what it calls a National Nutritious Food Basket.

Jean-Claude Basque, the group’s provincial co-ordinator, says the basket prices ranged from $257 at one store to $288 at another.

They released their findings Monday.

"This year they went up by 3.3 per cent; last year they were up by 5.7," Basque said.

"So in the last two years, that's an increase of nine per cent on these 67 items. So that's quite an increase. Nobody has that kind of increase in their income in the last two years."

The group issued a list of 11 recommendations to help people handle the steep prices.

They range from increases to social assistance rates, to the introduction of healthy food promotion policies at the major food store chains.