The federal grocery rebate hit some bank accounts this week, but that won’t be enough for many struggling with inflated food prices.

Janet Music, research program coordinator at the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, says higher prices is something we need to prepare for.

She says month after month they are seeing significant price increases and people are feeling it at the grocery stores.

How are people coping with the high cost of food? Music says there are a number of things consumers are doing, but ultimately people are both buying less food at retail outlets and going out to eat less.

She says on top of buying less food overall, people are buying lower quality food that has longer durability on the shelf. Many have switched to buying frozen fruit and vegetables—which are just as nutritious as fresh produce, or buying canned foods, cutting down on buying meat, or switching to cheaper cuts of meat.

Music says there is no crystal ball for the future, but she says no one is predicting that prices will return to pre-pandemic levels.