Bad timing: Trump economy hammers red-state soup kitchen as client list balloons

President Donald Trump’s economy has reached a point where it is impacting an institution upon which countless Americans rely for survival — soup kitchens.

Theresa Wilson, the owner of Rose of Sharon soup kitchen said the need for her services is "growing,” reportedAL.com’s Megan Plotka on Wednesday.

"We see people from everywhere, and I’ve been seeing an increase in the different types of people coming here, and it’s because the food prices are so high, gas prices are so high, and they have food insecurity,” Wilson said. “We want to be a resource.

Wilson currently serves about 300 people a day. But even as the Trump economy squeezes the line in her kitchen a little further out the door, Wilson said rampant inflation affecting Americans across the nation appears to be whacking her own utility costs, which have "increased very suddenly," peaking at $2,200 per month in February before dropping to a still-high $1,783 per month. Usually at this time of year, she reports the energy bill is between $800 and $1,000 per month.

Wilson said it was in the first year of Trump's second term, in Fall 2025, that she saw the first significant cost jump. She said it has stayed relatively high since its February peak of $2,200.

“Wilson knows another high utility bill is coming next month,” Plotka reported. “She knows that they’ll make ends meet in one way or another. ‘I’m a faith-based girl,’ she said. ‘We pray. We fast here. We just trust God that he’ll take care of things.’”

As of April, NBC News reported only 32 percent of adults approved of Trump’s handling of inflation and the cost of living. These surveys also deepen a trove of numbers reflecting Americans’ dissatisfaction with the Iran war, which is tied to the economy by spikes in gas prices.” Also in April, Chris Rupkey, chief economist for FWDBONDS LLC, predicted the current jump in energy prices was going to precede a much larger recession.

"Every recession since the 70s has been preceded by an energy price shock and if consumers thought there was a cost of living crisis before, get ready, as you haven't seen nothing yet,” Rupkey said. “The bond market is holding up as traders for now as they are unsure how transitory this inflation surge is, but one thing is for sure and that is the longer Fed officials sit on the sidelines and do nothing, the worse inflation is going to get.”

Trump’s White House continues to argue that the American economy is in good shape and that discussions of inflation and other economic hardships are overblown. When asked in April about economists’ observations about the Iran war raising energy prices, White House spokesman Kush Desai sent a statement to AlterNet defending Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro, who argued the war in Iran would ultimately lower prices and stimulate economic growth.

"These ‘economists’ are idiots,” Desai told AlterNet about Navarro’s critics. “Peter Navarro is an American Patriot whose loyalty to the President and the American people is unimpeachable.”