The concept of supporting socially disadvantaged population groups is not new and has a tradition in both countries the core of the EU, as well as in newer member countries. However, they are facing new challenges, whether it was a pandemic of a new type of coronavirus or the current war conflict in Ukraine. Authors employ in their explorative study corporate micro-financial data of food retailers from selected Central and Eastern European Countries to identify effects within selected multiple categorical independent factors on strategic financial performance of food retailers. Food retail chains are primarily business entities that fulfil their strategic financial goals by placing food stuff on the market. It is therefore an ambivalent situation, where on one hand there is an effort to maximize market value added of food merchandisers. A diversed situation of strategic financial performance of food retailers is identified as an factor that puts a pressure on an increase of food poverty in Europe.