LI consumers cut back as food prices rise

Lifting a package of ground beef at the supermarket, Yolanda Lacossiere looked at the price, burst out with "whoa" and put it back.

Oh well, beef wasn't on her schedule. Each week, she "treats" herself -- fresh vegetables one week, steak another and canola oil last week. That's how the Westbury home health aide, 66, can afford food at rising prices. "I just buy less," she said.

Prices for food at home, up 3.8 percent in the region from a year ago, have turned Long Islanders into food strategists. Old tactics still stand -- such as filling up with affordable pasta. But now, people cook around sale items and look at package weight because companies have been giving less for the same price.

Victoria Spedale, 48, of West Islip, figured out what day of the week produce is marked down to make way for new shipments.

Then she decides: "Rather than say I am going to make chicken cutlets or steak on the grill, I will go to the supermarket and . . . I will plan my meals around what's on sale."

To pay for food, restaurants and movies are mostly out, and for the kids, the mall is in, said Nicole Stabile, 37, a Farmingdale mother of two. "Now I bring my own snacks, or take them when we've eaten, so we don't have to go to the food court," she said.

A Siena College Research Institute poll Wednesday found that 70 percent of shoppers in the metropolitan area said food prices were having a serious impact on family finances.

Prices have been driven up by unrest in the oil-rich Mideast, commodities speculators, bad weather and growing demand for raw goods. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected a 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent jump this year for food at home.

"More and more countries have better-off individuals demanding more cars, more protein, higher quality proteins, more clothing and different kinds of clothing, and that's preying on the prices of products," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc. in Pennsylvania.

Last month's prices for bacon rose 19 percent from a year earlier, U.S. Labor data for the Northeast show, while whole chicken costs rose 3 percent, grapefruit 45 percent, oranges 23 percent and milk 2 percent.

In the metropolitan area, gas prices shot up 19 percent from a year ago, data show. When fuel rises, it's reflected quicker in produce than nonperishables, possibly made and delivered in times of lower costs.

That's not good for Lucinda Hoffman, 49, of West Babylon, who resorts to buying more frozen vegetables. But about a week ago, she wanted fresh eggplant for parmigiana and learned her store didn't stock it -- too expensive to sell.

"Food -- fresh foods -- is starting to become a little bit more of a luxury," she said.

On the Island, fuel takes an extra toll on groceries, food experts said. Lack of convenient public transportation means cars must be fed, and savings gained by shopping around could be eaten up by all the driving. And the area is far from the nation's farm centers.

"The farther you are from places where things are produced and distributed, the more you are going to pay for it," said University of Missouri economist Patrick Westhoff.

Fuel accounts for 5 percent to 10 percent of a commodity's cost and for raw products 15 percent to 20 percent, he said. Two of those raw products -- corn and soybeans -- are in big demand and short supply, he said. Along with wheat, these crops are at the bottom of a food chain, touching everything from corn syrup in soda to cow feed, he noted: "If you eat any meat, you're eating corn."

That's why shoppers said they've seen the biggest price hikes in produce and cereal.

As they food shopped last week, Farmingdale couple Robert, 74, and Barbara Scimeca, 66, put back a lot back on shelves and said their $100 weekly bill was $70 a year ago.

"It doesn't pay to eat anymore," he said.

"It's like 'How much does this cost? How much does that cost,' " she said.

"It's embarrassing," he said.

In one money-saving trend, shoppers ditch name brands for store labels, said Robert Hempson, district director for 10 Suffolk Stop & Shop stores.

"That stigma of 'I have to buy national brands' is leaving the marketplace relatively quickly . . . and more so in the last three months. "

In Roosevelt, soup kitchen founder Joanna Bell-Richards will start a garden on her Harvest for the World property.

She can't afford gas and a truck to buy bulk at East End farms, so she buys at local stores and relies on their donations to feed 125 daily, up from January's 85.

"You can't offer as much produce as you like," Bell-Richards said. "They're pricing us totally straight out of the market."