Salvation Army weathering rise in food prices so far

The Salvation Army in Windsor, Ont., has been able to deal with the rising cost of food due to inflation — at least for now, says Jijoy Varghese, support service manager.

Varghese takes care of the kitchen at the Salvation Army, and said they serve hundreds of meals each week.

He said donations make up about half of what they serve to clients, and with the help of consistent giving from the community, the rise in prices hasn't been too hard on them yet.

"We don't have a problem now, but I'm sure if this keeps up, then probably a few months down the line will have to really look at allocating more budget for our food to make sure we have enough to keep the kitchen running as we do now," he said.

He's probably added about 15 per cent to the food budget already, Varghese said.

The cost of food is up 3.8 per cent over last year, according to the most recent Consumer Price Index, which is from October.

For some items, such as meat, the increase is even more dramatic — up 9.9 per cent over last year.

Varghese said in some ways the pandemic also forced the kitchen and chef to be more flexible and try new things.

"We try to do things like chickpeas, lentils," he said.

"And our chef really does a good job."