One Dallas food bank says demand for food assistance has surpassed what was seen during the financial crisis and the pandemic, Fed survey finds
The Fed's latest "beige book" report found that middle- and lower-income Americans are struggling economically, and nonprofits are also facing tight budgets.
Nonprofits serving lower-income Americans across the country experienced a flood of demand for assistance at the start of the summer as families struggled with persistently higher prices for food, housing and transportation, according to the Federal Reserve's "beige book" report on current economic conditions released Wednesday.
One nonprofit in Dallas reported that demand for food assistance is now higher than it was in 2008 during the financial crisis or in 2020 during the pandemic.
The Fed's beige book is a collection of anecdotes from the central bank's contacts across the country and is designed to give officials a sense of conditions on the ground before they meet. Their next meeting will be at the end of July.
The latest reports cover late May and June and were collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago until just after July 4.
The anecdotes bolster the theory that the U.S. economy is becoming more "K-shaped," with wealthy Americans thriving as stock prices jump while middle- and low-income Americans struggle, as their wages aren't keeping up with inflation.
"Persistent uncertainty continued to be a drag on low- and moderate-income consumers and the organizations that serve them," the Chicago Fed said.
Lower-income consumers also added to their credit-card debt to pay for essential goods, the survey found.
Many nonprofits reported that they are struggling with tight budgets, making it difficult to meet the growing needs of their communities, the Boston Fed said. In several districts across the country, organizations reported they were relying less on the federal government amid changes to rules and funding levels.
In New York, the beige book survey reported, the supply of affordable housing is critically below demand, with multiyear waiting lists and stalled projects.
"Affordable housing developers and community planners have identified a critical mismatch between household incomes and available units, which particularly affects households earning slightly above income thresholds - who earn too much to qualify for assistance yet cannot afford rising housing costs," the New York Fed said.
In Kansas City, small businesses reported that they are cutting jobs as lower- and middle-income consumers pull back on discretionary spending. Job seekers said they were finding it hard to get past artificial-intelligence application screeners.
One source of economic growth, according to the report, was data-center construction. Still, the data-center boom hasn't been enough to broadly lift any given region.
"If you are not directly involved in data-center work, the broader construction market feels relatively weak," an electrical contractor in North Dakota said.
Meanwhile, low-income workers in communities surrounding data centers reported that the new construction was making housing unaffordable.
-Greg Robb
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 15, 2026 16:41 ET (20:41 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments