Grocery prices across the country have continued to rise in recent years, and Utahns are feeling the extra pressure.
Nationally, about half of all U.S. adults consider the cost of groceries to be a major source of stress in their lives, says a poll from the Associated Press and the NORC at the University of Chicago.
And according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, Utah’s consumer sentiment dropped 4.8% in July, the lowest reading since September 2024. That’s the measure of how much confidence people have in the economy. Compared to June, a larger share of Utahns reported feeling worse off financially than a year ago.
West Jordan resident Doral Vance said grocery expenses are increasingly a burden, especially as he tries to feed three teenage children.
“There was a good chunk of my life when I wasn't worried what the final number was going to be when [the cashier] scanned the final item,” he said. “But now it's, it's like there is that feeling in your chest, where you're just like, ‘Man, OK, where we going to pull from?’”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food prices jumped 23.6% from 2020 to 2024. But price growth did slow in 2024 compared to the year before. Nicole Hull, who lives in Plain City, said it’s forced her to make tough choices at the store.
“You're not eating healthy enough because you can't get food cheap enough to eat,” she said. “It’s cheaper to buy Top Ramen and mac and cheese than it is to buy chicken and steak and vegetables.”
Hull said she has taken steps to try to alleviate the stress, like sourcing those pricier items herself. She’s growing a garden and has chickens, both for eggs and meat.
Vance and his family have also made changes to compensate for grocery costs.
“We've definitely gone without some things in order to buy food, cause you got to feed those growing kids,” he said.
Others are turning to outside help, such as food banks. Demand is up at the Center of Hope Food Pantry in North Salt Lake, said Ranee Hollinger, vice president of the board of the Ladies of Charity, the group that operates the pantry.
“It's gone up from about 250 families a month to over 450 families a month just in the last year or so,” she said.
She thinks that has a lot to do with the pressure from food prices. Hollinger added that their client demographic has shifted in the past few months, too, with more middle-class families coming in for extra support.
“[Families] say that they couldn't make it without us,” Hollinger said. “They'll come up and say thank me and say, ‘Thank you, we couldn't feed our family without coming here.’”
