How to help food-insecure Marylanders this holiday season

The holiday season is officially here, and so are all of the expenses that come with it: food for holiday dinners, gifts for family, and traveling expenses. But this year especially, those costs are hitting families harder than before — and it’s not just because of the holidays. The annual food index has risen 12.9% — the largest spike since 1999, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Maryland, U.S. Census data shows that the percentage of citizens struggling to pay for basic household expenses has risen from 24% in Dec. 2021 to 40% in Sept. 2022. “There’s so many families out there who are having trouble making ends meet, despite the fact that they’re working one, two, three jobs at times,” said Maryland Food Bank spokesperson Joanna Warner.