Food First NL has released its annual Nutritious Food Basket numbers which, not surprisingly, reflect the growing cost of groceries.

The latest numbers for 2023 show that a family of four pays and average of $333 a week for groceries that meet the recommendations of the Canada Food Guide. That’s up a whopping 8 per cent from the previous year.

Those figures differ depending on where you live. For those on the north coast of Labrador, the cost is greater, at $509 a week, while in eastern Newfoundland where transportation is not as great a factor and competition is higher, the cost is $317 a week.

That’s a great concern according to Food First NL CEO Josh Smee, who says the pace of food inflation far out-paced overall inflation rates.

He says CPI and inflation is usually based on national numbers and doesn’t always capture “the nuance of what’s going on at the provincial or event the regional level.” He says CPI and inflation was just under 4 per cent last year, “food in Newfoundland and Labrador went up twice as fast, so that does tell you there’s some other things going on in our food supply.”