Rising Food Prices Hitting Brooklynites

With the prices of many food staples climbing, many Brooklyites are finding the increased cost of living is causing serious problems. Today's Daily News looks at the impact on some low-income residents:

Retired Fort Greene home attendant Orelia Myers' diet has taken a big hit as food prices have soared across the country - pasta has replaced meat on her dinner table. And Leslie Elikwu, already reeling from personal problems that make it difficult to care for her four children, sometimes takes them to soup kitchens.

For poor Brooklyn families, staples like meat, bread, eggs and milk are fast becoming luxuries. "I like porkchops, love porkchops, but they're so high, so high, so high. I'm not buying them like I used to," lamented Myers, 67, who lives in the Farragut Houses.

"I'm buying more potatoes and pasta," she said. "They're cheaper."...

The problem is serious for people on limited or fixed incomes. Some estimate the cost of groceries have gone up almost 50 percent. A gallon of milk now costs about $4 - 33 cents more than it did just last month. The average price for a dozen eggs has increased by as much as 25 percent.