Stewing over the cost of living? This mom digs into the grinding reality of making ends meet

In order to learn something about the cost of living — and the painful decisions people face while trying to pay their bills and feed their families — I went to a community in rural Newfoundland to make a pot of stew. 

Let me explain. 

This spring, the Community Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Harris Centre at Memorial University released Vital Signs, an annual check-up on the quality of life in Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Beef stew was just one snapshot. Researchers found that a pot of beef stew costs about 43 per cent more now than it did just five years ago. 

As part of my work with CBC Radio's The Signal, I got in touch with Kayla Dillon, who lives in the Bonavista Peninsula community of Lethbridge, and who has agreed to make stew with me. 

"I struggle a lot even going to the grocery store because I find it really overwhelming," she says. 

"Things I bought regularly for years all of a sudden are very expensive. We've definitely had to put things back."

Dillon, a mother of four, is a member of Food First N.L.'s Lived and Living Experience Advisory Group, which is a team of people from all areas of Newfoundland and Labrador who have experienced food insecurity. They work toward destigmatizing food poverty and look for solutions to the barriers to accessible food.

"We're just regular people and we all have our own different experiences with food poverty," she tells me. "We all have different stories and similarities at the same time." 

Before we gathered at the Lethbridge rec centre, I went shopping for the ingredients at Holloways Value Grocer, which has been serving the community and surrounding area since 1981. 

Paul Holloway, the owner of the store, says he has seen the cost of food increase for decades — and how it affects families in the community.

"We often see people come in who find it difficult to have the money to buy what they need," said Holloway while standing in front of perfectly placed produce.

As I shopped, I looked at the prices on the shelves. They were on par with groceries you'll see at a big box store in St. John's. I wondered how an independent grocery store could compare with the prices of national grocery chains.

I paid for my groceries. The  total was around $50. After chatting with the cashiers, I headed off to make some stew.