March to a Million Meals: Inflation affecting food pantries in SWFL

Inflation is making more families turn to food pantries to make ends meet.

But now, those food pantries are feeling the pinch.

President and CEO of Harry Chapin Food Bank Richard Leber said more people rely on them to put food on the table.

“We had a pandemic, which incidentally, has not completely gone away. And then we saw inflation on top of that, which is continuing. And we had the hurricane. So, you know, people have suffered in multiple different ways,” Leber said.

Not only are those high prices hurting the people the food bank serves, but it’s also squeezing everything out of the food bank’s wallet too.

“We’re seeing 30% increases in cost of food on some items, and massive increases in some things like eggs, of course,” Leber said. “It also affects our cost of distribution, fuel prices have come back down, but they’re still higher than they were a couple of years ago … it tightens our budget and makes it harder, harder for us to find enough money to serve everybody.”

But the food bank is doing everything it can to make sure you don’t feel the pinch.

“We are always trying to get the most we can out of our money,” Leber said. “There’s never enough money to go around.”

You can help WINK News raise $450,000 to put a million meals on the tables of hungry families in Southwest Florida.

You can donate by visiting our March to a Million Meals donation page.

More from March to a Million Meals:

• Why your dollar matters
• Food insecurity leads first-timer to a food bank