FeedMore WNY provides assistance to families and individuals experiencing food insecurity. U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, over the past four years, has secured $5.5 million to help FeedMore build a new facility in Hamburg.
The New York Democrat was at FeedMore’s current food center on Holt Street in Buffalo to discuss rising costs for families, and see pointed her finger to a source of the increased strain, one that began six months ago.
“The worst part is this pain is completely avoidable. It's a direct result of our war with Iran,” Gillibrand said. “By starting this war, President Trump threatened global energy supplies and gambled with the financial security of every single New Yorker. Between this war and the president's reckless tariffs, inflation has skyrocketed, and this will only get worse with President Trump's latest trade war with our neighbor, Canada.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ recent Consumer Price Index (CPI) report shows headline inflation surged to 4.2%, the sharpest 12-month increase since April 2023. Prices for items like fruits and vegetables have climbed 6.1%, while the prices for nonalcoholic beverages are up 5.8%.
Buffalo mayor Sean Ryan joined the senator Friday morning. A former state legislator, Ryan noted that food insecurity is not just an urban issue. He also stated the “chaotic nature of the administration in Washington, D.C.” is driving prices up, starting with petroleum and oil products.
“They're at the base of our fertilizer industry. If you can't have a steady stream of fertilizer for your crops, your prices are going to go up. Beef prices are going up. Vegetable prices are going up,” Ryan said. “Washington needs to get steady policies instead of a consistent chaos, because that consistent chaos it ends up hurting people at the cash register, whether you're filling your tank up with gas or you're going to the grocery store.”
Buffalo was one of two stops Gillibrand made across the state Friday to call for relief from rising living expenses. She also appeared in Troy, where she again spoke of the struggle many people deal with each day.
“Those are real life, where we constantly hear from individuals who are making those tough decisions of ‘do I pay a utility bill? Do I pay car insurance? Or do I feed my family? How do you make that decision?’ All of them are important,” said Collin Bishop, vice president at FeedMore WNY. “We really want the public to know, if you're in that situation where you don't know how you're going to do all of it, there are resources like FeedMore WNY and our network of partner agencies, 400 around our service area, who are here to provide assistance to you.”
Gillibrand suggests these pressures come before Americans may begin feeling the additional effects of Trump’s new tariffs against Canada. As the senator was leaving, she addressed the president’s latest move, his executive order to rename Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America.’ Gillibrand called it an absurdity, and more chaos.
“President Trump should be focused on getting our grocery costs down, making sure that families can get food,” she said. “The fact that he has cut funding for the SNAP program, the fact that he's driving costs up with his war in Iran... He has plenty of money for bombs, but no money for groceries.”
