abstract from "School Food Policy Affects Everyone: Retail Responses to the National School Lunch Program" by #JessieHandbury & #SarahMoshary in #NBER:

"We study the private market response to the National School Lunch Program, documenting economically meaningful spillovers to non-recipients. We focus on the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), an expansion of the lunch program under the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Under the CEP, participating schools offer free lunch to all students. We leverage both the staggered roll-out and eligibility criterion for the CEP, which is limited to schools where at least 40% of students participate in other means-tested welfare programs. We find that local adoption of the CEP causes households with children to reduce their grocery purchases, leading to a 10% decline in grocery sales at large retail chains. Retailers respond with chain-level price adjustments: chains with the most exposure lower prices by 2.5% across all outlets in the years following adoption, so that the program's welfare benefits propagate spatially. Using a stylized model of grocery demand, we estimate that, by 2016, the indirect benefit had reduced grocery costs for the median household by approximately 4.5%."

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29384/w29384.pdf

#SchoolLunch #CEP #GroceryCosts #retailers #groceries #WorkingPaper #CommunityEligibilityProvision #NationalBureauOfEconomicResearch

Global News BC: NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh talks costs of living in Penticton, B.C. https://globalnews.ca/news/9524814/ndp-leader-jagmeet-singh-penticton-bc/ #globalnews #britishcolumbia #news #NewDemocraticParty #AffordableHousing #FederalGovernment #BCHousingCrisis #RentalHousing #southokanagan #CostofLiving #Grocerycosts #JagmeetSingh #risingcosts #penticton #Politics #Economy #Canada #NDP

$3 for a gallon of milk (~$1 less than the regional average), $19/hr starting wage (~$4 above state minimum). Aldi is an excellent example of how labor costs aren't the cause of high retail prices. #LivingWage #Massachusetts #GroceryCosts

For a family of four, the total annual grocery bill is expected to rise more than $1,000.

Canadians choosing cheaper, less-healthy foods, skipping medications to cut costs: poll - National | Globalnews.ca https://globalnews.ca/news/9337810/rising-food-prices-salvation-army-poll/ #FoodSecurity #inflation #GroceryCosts #cdnpoli