Hanna Hensley, 29, an assistant high school teacher in Arlington, Va., is glad to see some food prices come down recently, because it has helped ease her grocery bill.

When egg prices shot up to around $5 a carton a few months ago, she stopped buying them. But on Sunday, while shopping at a Giant Food store, she picked up a carton of them, along with oatmeal, tomatoes, mushrooms and sliced marble cake. A dozen eggs now cost her about $2.50, she said.

Despite some relief at the grocery store, Ms. Hensley said she was still frustrated with the high cost of food. Weekly groceries for her family, which includes her parents and sister, now total about $100, up from $70 before the pandemic.

After remaining flat for two straight months, food costs climbed 0.2 percent in May from the prior month, according to a Labor Department report released on Tuesday. That gain defied a cooling trend in inflation: Overall prices rose 4 percent in the year through May, the slowest pace in more than two years.